BUI<CH 


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^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


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Presented    by  W^V^ .  \jU  7^  .  &\n  (S(:>\  c:>\  On  V^ 


BV  1210  .16  1912 
Young  Men's  Christian 

Association.  International 
The  country  church  and  rural 

wp.  If  ;^rp 


The  Country  Church  and 
Rural  Welfare 


Edited  by 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  COMMITTEE 

OF  YOUNG  MENS  CHRISTIAN 

ASSOCIATIONS 


Aj0aonatt0tt  PtieaB 

NEW  YORK:        124  East  28th  Street 

LONDON:  47  Paternoster  Row,  E.  C. 

1912 


Copyright,  191*,  by 

THE    INTERNATIONAL    COMMITTEE  OF 
YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION .       v 

D.  Hunter  McAlpin,  M.  D.,  Chairman  County  Work,  In- 
ternational Committee  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations. 

I. 

IS  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL 
CHURCH  THEOLOGICAL  OR  SOCIOLOGICAL— 
Professor  G.  Walter  Fiske,  Junior  Dean,  Oberlin  Theo- 
logical   Seminary I 

The  Church  is  Fundamentally  Social — Rev.  Wilbert 
L.  Anderson,  Pastor  First  Congregational  Church,  Am- 
herst, Mass.  Salvation  and  Service — Dr.  Warren  H. 
Wilson,  Superintendent  Department  of  Church  and 
Country  Life,  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions. 
Society  the  Sum  of  Its  Units — Professor  W.  Rus- 
sell Collins,  D.  D.,  Theological  Seminary,  Reformed 
Episcopal  Church,  Philadelphia.  How  Shall  the 
Church  Be  Related  to  the  Field? — Rev.  Paul  Martin, 
Registrar  and  Secretary,  Princeton  Theological  Semi- 
nary. Should  Non-Christians  Be  Chosen  as  Leaders? — 
Rev.  A.  O.  Pritchard,  Village  Pastor.  Some  Things 
That  Can  Be  Done — Rev.  J.  A.  Scheuerle,  Pastor 
Second  Congregational  Church,  Hartford,  Vi.  A 
Teacher  That  Learned  Things — Raymond  Spargo.  A 
Needy  Parish — Professor  Edwin  L.  Earp,  Ph.  D.,  Drew 
Theological  Seminary.  Evangelism  Needed — Professor 
A.  P.  Gesner,  Berkeley  Divinity  School.  Theology  in 
Action — Rev.  James  P.  Gillespie,  Rural  Pastor.  Elim- 
ination OF  the  Unfit — Hon.  Willet  M.  Hays,  As- 
sistant Secretary  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Who  Are  the  Unfit? — Professor  A.  P.  Gesner.  Sum- 
ming Up — Professor  G.  Walter  Fiske.  Review — Dr. 
Warren  H.  Wilson. 

IL 

STANDARDS     OF     RELIGIOUS     TEACHING— Professor 

William     H.     Allison,     Dean     of     Colgate     Theological 
Seminary 34 

The  Appeal  for  the  Strong  Country  Minister — Pro- 
fessor Edwin  L.  Earp.  The  Smaller  Communities 
Are  Not  Sending  Out  Men — Rev.  Frank  A.  Smith, 
Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,  HaddonHeld,  N.  J.  Dif- 
ficulties IN  Adjusting  Courses — Professor  A.  S. 
Hobart,  Crozer  Theological  Seminary.  Is  the  Country 
Church  Yet  a  Big  Man's  Job? — Professor  G.  C. 
Foley,  D.  D.,  Philadelphia  Divinity  School.  Keeping 
the  Strong  Man  in  the  Country — President  Kenyon 
L.  Butterfield,  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College. 
Need    for    Practical    Courses — Rev.    J.    A.    Scheuerle. 


CONTENTS 

FACE 

Extension  Work — President  Kenyon  L.  Butterfield. 
Country  Editor  Versus  Trained  Teacher — Rev. 
Charles  Taylor,  Rural  Pastor.  God  and  Caesar — Pro- 
fessor William  H.  Allison.  Review — Rev.  Wilbert  L. 
Anderson. 

III. 

THE     CHURCH     ITSELF— Rev.     Matthew     B.     McNutt, 

Pastor  Dupage  Presbyterian  Church,  Plainfield,  III.  .  62 
The  Church  Known  by  Its  Fruits — Professor  Wil- 
liam H.  Allison.  Leadership  in  Varied  Activities — 
Rev.  Alexander  Thompson,  Rural  Pastor.  Need  for 
Rural  Surveys — Rev.  A.  S.  Clayton,  Rural  Pastor. 
Surveys  Already  Made — Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson.  Too 
Many  Churches — Rev.  A.  C.  Wyckoff,  Rural  Pastor. 
Church  Union — Hon.  Willet  M.  Hays.  Mistaken 
Rural  View  of  the  City — Chancellor  Elmer  E.  Brown, 
New  York  University.  Training  the  Children — Pro- 
fessor A.  S.  Hobart.  Review — Rev.  W.  A.  Dumont, 
Coxsackie,   New   York. 

IV. 

THE   SCHOOL— Hon.  Willet  M.   Hays,  Assistant  Secretary 

U.     S.     Department     of    Agriculture 88 

Pastor  and  Country  School — Robert  W.  Veach,  Dean  of 
Bible  Teachers'  Training  School,  New  York.  The 
Lesson  of  the  Seed — George  T.  Powell,  Agricultural 
Expert,    New    York. 

V. 

THE    GRANGE— President    Kenyon    L.    Butterfield,    Massa- 
chusetts   Agricultural     College 99 

Attitude  of  the  Church  Toward  the  Grange — Dr. 
William  H.  Allison.  The  Farmer's  Class-Conscious- 
NEss — Professor  Edwin  L.  Earp.  A  Grange  Tent — 
Rev.  W.  B.  Sheddan,  Assistant  Librarian,  Princeton 
Theological    Seminary. 

VI. 
THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    FARMERS'    INSTITUTE— 
Hon.    John    Hamilton,    U.    S.    Department    of    Agricul- 
ture   113 

Union  Ministers'  Meetings — Professor  G.  Walter  Fiske. 

VII. 

LEADERSHIP— Albert    E.    Roberts,    County    Work    Secre- 
tary, International  Committee  of  Young  Men's  Christian 

Associations  133 

Reaching  the  Boys — Professor  James  McConaughy, 
Managing  Editor  Sunday  School  World.  Leaders  in 
Social  Study — Professor  A.   E.   Gesner. 

vin. 

GENERAL    REVIEW— Professor    Edwin    L.    Earp     .      .      .144 
List   of   Delegates  to   Country   Church   Conference    .   149 


INTRODUCTION 

The  County  Work  Department  of  the  In- 
ternational Committee  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  consists  of  a  committee 
of  business  men  and  five  secretaries.  We 
have  our  Secretary  Emeritus,  Robert  Weiden- 
sall.  I  do  not  know  how  we  could  get 
along  without  him,  because  he  is  the  one 
we  go  to  for  help  at  all  times.  He  was  the 
founder  of  County  Work.  One  secretary 
is  in  charge  of  the  general  administration 
of  the  department.  Our  Religious  Work 
secretary  is  devoting  most  of  his  time  to  the 
Men  and  Religion  Forward  Movement  this 
year,  so  he  can  hardly  be  accredited  as  work- 
ing with  us.  Our  Secretary  for  Rural  Health 
and  Recreation  is  outlining  and  developing  a 
plan  for  the  education  of  country  boys  and 
young  men  along  these  lines.  Besides  these 
we  have  one  man  giving  his  time  to  research 
and  editorial  work. 

Now  there  are  sixty-eight  State  and  county 
secretaries   and   several   thousand   volunteer 


INTRODUCTION 

workers  scattered  over  this  broad  continent 
who  are  coming  In  contact  with  thousands  of 
men  and  boys  and  with  rural  conditions  as 
they  really  exist.  These  men  meet  many 
problems  and  In  their  effort  to  solve  these 
problems  they  confer  with  the  State  secretar- 
ies and  International  secretaries,  who  often 
help  to  find  solutions.  Our  secretaries  visit 
the  local  fields  traveling  sometimes  50,000 
miles  in  a  year.  We  are  at  times  bewildered 
by  the  very  extent  of  the  work.  The  prob- 
lems cover  a  wide  area  and  many  subjects,  and 
the  topics  are  multiplied  each  year.  It 
Is  for  this  reason  that  these  papers  have 
been  collected — to  give  permanence  to  the 
words  of  men  who  are  experts  in  their  line 
that  they  may  shed  some  light  on  the 
solution  of  these  problems  as  they  come  to 
the  International  office.  We  read  in  the 
papers  a  great  deal  about  the  magnificent 
work  being  done  by  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment at  Washington.  We  see  as  we  travel 
through  the  country,  through  the  West 
especially,  the  evidences  of  the  expenditure 
of  large  sums  of  money.  It  is  an  active  de- 
partment.    They  are  doing  a  great  deal  to 


INTRODUCTION 

spread  abroad  the  knowledge  of  how  to  con- 
serve the  resources  of  our  land,  so  far  as  ag- 
riculture Is  concerned. 

We  see  through  our  towns  and  our  cities, 
especially  through  the  West,  where  It  was 
my  privilege  to  travel  this  last  summer, 
that  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  buildings  Is 
the  schoolhouse;  a  large  building,  modern 
and  up-to-date.  Now  twenty  or  thirty  years 
ago,  we  used  to  have  school  teachers,  who, 
as  the  expression  goes,  "  made  failures  In 
other  things  "  and  had  "  a  little  learning," 
and  so  went  out  to  try  It  on  the  farmers' 
children  I 

Today  we  have  scattered  through  our 
States  normal  schools  and  colleges  preparing 
people  for  this  field  of  service,  but  our  secre- 
taries report  that  although  there  Is  a  great 
deal  done  for  education  and  a  great  deal  of 
labor  expended  In  the  development  of  the  In- 
dustries, they  find  little  evidence  of  an  effort 
to  develop  and  train  men  to  conserve  the 
spiritual  side  of  our  country  life.  We  have 
collected  In  this  volume  the  contributions  of 
men  representing  agricultural  schools  and 
colleges,  and  theological  seminaries,  and  also 


INTRODUCTION 

the  views  of  country  pastors,  all  of  whom 
have  joined  in  the  effort  to  make  clear  the 
needs  of  the  country  and  of  the  people  liv- 
ing in  the  country  and  the  best  way  to  meet 
these  needs  so  that  our  secretaries  can  go  out 
and  put  their  shoulder  to  the  wheel  and  help 
Intelligently  and  effectively.  The  motto  of 
County  Work  is  '*  Cooperation."  We  try  to 
cooperate  with  all  the  things  that  are  good. 
We  sometimes  cooperate  with  things  that  do 
not,  In  all  respects,  stand  for  the  best,  as,  for 
instance,  the  county  fairs  and  State  fairs;  but 
we  find  It  easier  to  turn  the  tide  In  the  right 
direction  by  cooperation  than  by  antagonism. 
— D.  Hunter  Mc  Alpin,  M.  D, 


IS  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  FUNCTION 
OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH  THEO- 
LOGICAL OR  SOCIOLOGICAL? 

It  certainly  Is  the  irony  of  fate  for  a  theo- 
logical professor  to  be  confronted  by  a  ques- 
tion like  this,  especially  when  he  is  expected 
to  say  that  it  is  not  theological,  and  put  him- 
self out  of  business.  Yet  our  difficulty  is 
mainly  a  matter  of  definition.  If  I  were  to 
answer  this  question  off-hand,  as  I  answered 
it  to  myself,  when  I  first  read  it  over,  I  should 
say,  the  country  church  is  neither  theological 
nor  sociological;  it  is  religious.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  term  theological  is  broad- 
ened to  mean  what  it  ought  to  mean,  then  the 
Church's  function  is  both  theological  and  so- 
ciological. If  the  term  social  is  to  apply  to 
the  full  breadth  of  human  nature  and  its 
needs,  then  the  function  of  the  country  church 
is  fundamentally  sociological. 

I  shall  propose  one  statement  as  a  test.  I 
believe  that  the  country  church  must  be  a 


2  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

community-serving  church,  not  a  self-serving 
church.  If  you  apply  this  principle  to  all 
these  questions  you  will  find  that  it  will 
greatly  help.  A  country  church  must  obey 
Christ's  three  great  social  principles  —  love, 
service  and  sacrifice.  Has  the  country 
church  always  done  that?  We  know  It  has 
not.  We  know  that  every  country  church 
that  has  succeeded  and  is  succeeding  is  obey- 
ing these  three  great  laws;  and  if  it  Is  a  fail- 
ure, that  is  because  it  is  not  willing  to  love  all 
its  neighbors,  it  is  not  willing  to  serve  the 
whole  community,  it  Is  not  willing  to  sacrifice 
for  the  sake  of  the  community  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  larger  Interests  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven. 

I.  ''Is  the  Church  a  social  institution 
under  the  operation  of  sociological  law? '' 
The  traditional  answer  here,  I  think,  would 
be,  "  No,  the  Church  Is  a  religious  rather 
than  a  social  institution."  And  of  course, 
from  the  traditional  viewpoint,  the  country 
church  is  quite  theological  in  aim  and  pur- 
pose, and  not  sociological  at  all.  I  should, 
of  course,  agree  with  any  one  who  says 
the     Church     is     a     religious     Institution; 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH  3 

but  I  should  immediately  challenge  him  when 
he  says^the  statement  of  that  fact  is  an  answer 
to  this  question.  The  Church  is  a  special 
institution  used  in  the  providence  of  God 
for  the  regeneration  of  human  souls.  But 
that  does  not  mean  that  it  is  not  a  social  in- 
stitution too.  Any  institution  in  this  world 
must  be  a  social  institution  of  course.  It  has 
to  do  with  men  in  mutual  relations  and  is 
under  the  operation  of  social  law,  just  as  all 
institutions  must  be.  The  Church  as  an  insti- 
tution can  be  no  exception  to  this  rule. 

2.  *^  Is  social  regeneration  merely  the  sum 
total  of  individual  regeneration?  ^'  This 
question  is  fundamental  to  our  discussion. 
It  involves  the  definitions  of  the  social  gos- 
pel and  of  ''  the  simple  gospel,"  so-called. 
The  people  who  have  not  yet  seen  the  social 
vision  would  answer  this  question  in  the  tradi- 
tional way,  *'  If  you  save  people  individually, 
yqu  will  save  society  "  ;  and  they  would  doubt- 
less do  so  conscientiously.  If  you  really  save 
the  individual,  of  course  you  save  the  lost, 
but  there  is  something  more  than  the  sav- 
ing of  the  individual.  Rauschenbusch  puts 
it  very  clearly  when  he  says,  "  There  are  two 


4  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

great  entitles  in  human  life,  the  human  soul 
and  the  human  race,  and  religion  is  to  save 
both."  Yet  we  have  been  putting  in  our 
efforts,  as  churches,  almost  wholly  to  save 
the  individual,  and  letting  the  social  situa- 
tion go  by;  as  if  we  were  living  in  an  indi- 
vidualistic age  which  needed  only  the  indi- 
vidualistic gospel.  Doubtless  there  are  some 
who  would  say:  *' Saving  the  individual  is 
all  that  is  essential.  If  a  man  really  gets 
right  with  God,  he  will  live  in  right  relations 
both  with  God  and  his  fellow  man.  He  will 
maintain  his  Christian  character.  He  will 
serve  his  community  and  his  generation ;  and 
the   environment  will  be   changed  with  the 


man." 


Yes,  that  is  the  theory.  We  hope  that  it 
is  true.  It  is  our  natural  expectation,  and  we 
take  the  results  for  granted.  But  let  us  face 
the  facts,  and  we  shall  often  find  that  they 
do  not  bear  out  the  assumption.  We  often 
find  that  after  a  revival  there  is  a  great 
waste,  a  great  reaction;  there  is  not  thorough 
conservation  of  results.  What  causes  this 
very  common  experience?  It  is  often  due 
to  moral  gravitation,  the  down-drag  of  an 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH  5 

environment  that  is  not  redeemed.  The  re- 
demption of  the  environment  of  the  soul  is 
necessary.  The  social  conditions  of  our 
cities  and  villages  must  be  improved  to  give 
human  souls  a  fair  chance  to  live  in  the 
light.  One  great  argument,  it  seems  to  me, 
for  emphasizing  social  redemption  is  that 
social  redemption  is  necessary  to  conserve  the 
spiritual  results  of  the  "  simple  gospel  itself." 
I  believe  in  evangelism,  sane,  personal  evan- 
gelism; but  I  believe  it  is  a  great  pity  to  al- 
low the  results  to  be  lost  because  you  do 
not  follow  them  up  meanwhile  with  the  social 
redemption  of  your  city  or  village.  The 
emphasis  on  social  regeneration  would  seem 
to  me  to  be  quite  justified,  even  from  the  per- 
sonal angle  alone.  Yet  the  question  is  far 
broader  than  this.  The  cause  of  social  bet- 
terment rightly  claims  the  support  of  every 
Christian  who  prays  "  Thy  Kingdom  come." 
We  should  claim  this  world  for  God  and  re- 
deem it. 

3.  *^  Is  there  any  essential  diference  he- 
tzveen  cooperation  of  the  Church  with  hos- 
pitals, orphans'  homes,  etc.,  and  with  granges, 
civic     improvement     associations,      athletic 


6  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

clubs,  etc.?"  The  question  is  simple,  it 
seems  to  me.  If  hospitals  and  orphans' 
homes,  etc.,  are  worthy  of  being  coordinated 
with  the  work  of  the  city  churches,  in  order  to 
be  consistent,  you  must  grant  the  same  right 
in  the  country,  and  must  say  that  country  in- 
stitutions have  the  right  to  claim  that  co- 
ordination with  the  church  and  the  hearty  co- 
operation of  the  church.  Otherwise,  you 
will  give  the  city  a  right  you  are  not  giving 
to  the  country.  We  must  claim  equal  rights 
for  both. 

4.  '^  Is  an  emphasis  on  the  distinctively 
religious  function  of  the  country  church  es- 
sential to  its  social  activities?  '^  I  believe  it 
is.  I  have  very  little  faith  in  a  non-religious 
social  movement  in  the  country,  whether  in 
the  open  country  or  the  village.  I  believe 
that  we  must  give  a  distinctly  religious  trend 
and  aim,  purpose  and  impulse  and  power  to 
all  of  our  social  movements  in  the  country. 
You  do  not  need  to  be  afraid  of  religion 
among  country  people.  They  are  naturally 
religious.  They  will  take  to  it,  if  it  com- 
mends itself  to  them  as  genuine.  Many  of 
them    distrust    sectarianism,    however,    and 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH  7 

with  good  reason,  for  It  Is  the  curse  of  country 
churches.  Sectarianism  Is  not  religion,  It  Is 
merely  selfishness  In  religion.  A  real  re- 
ligion which  makes  the  world  better  and 
more  brotherly  Is  always  welcome  In  the 
country. 

As  I  was  speaking  the  other  day  to  an 
audience  of  men  In  a  city  In  Canada,  many 
of  them  socialists  and  the  rest  antl-soclallsts, 
I  summed  up  my  whole  argument  here: 
"  Christianity  must  be  socialized  and  social- 
ism must  be  Christianized."  Likewise  the 
religion  of  the  country  church  must  be  social- 
ized and  the  sociology  of  the  country  church 
must  be  Christianized.  And  when  you  try 
the  two  together  you  have  a  winning  gospel 
which  Is  nothing  less  than  the  full-orbed  so- 
cial gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  No  Christian 
should  believe  so  thoroughly  and  so  Insist- 
ently In  the  Individual  gospel  that  he  cannot 
see  the  social  vision.  The  Individualist  Is 
right  so  far  as  he  goes;  but  his  gospel  Is  only 
a  hemisphere.  I  accept  all  that  he  accepts 
and  more.  The  social  gospel  of  Jesus  Is  the 
good  news  of  salvation  for  the  Individual, 
phis   the    reorganization    of   society   on   the 


8  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Christian  basis.  The  social  gospel  Is  not  a 
minor  phase  of  God's  Good  News.  It  is 
the  whole  thing.  It  is  the  sphere  which  in- 
cludes God's  great  plan  both  for  Individuals 
and  for  the  world  in  which  they  live. 

Having  attempted  to  answer  briefly  these 
questions  I  wish  to  make  five  constructive 
suggestions.  I  believe  they  are  the  five  ulti- 
mate factors  In  the  problem  of  the  country 
church : 

1.  A  re-direction,  a  new  socializing  of  the 
country  community,  based  on  a  new  agricul- 
tural prosperity  and  a  true  social  spirit. 

2.  A  leadership  adequately  trained  and 
decently  paid.  We  must  have  a  permanently 
loyal  country  ministry  for  life. 

3.  Real  church  cooperation,  with  local 
federation  everywhere  and  elimination  often; 
ultimately  abolishing  sectarianism,  city  luxury 
and  social  crime. 

4.  A  broader  vision  of  service  for  the 
country  church,  both  in  function  and  scope. 
Let  It  be  a  community-wide  service  for  com- 
munity building;  an  unselfish  service  meeting 
every  neglected  need. 

5.  A  vital,  masculine  lay  leadership,  dis- 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH  9 

covered,  developed  and  trained.  It  is 
through  the  cooperative  leadership  of  lay- 
men, trained  to  their  tasks,  that  the  rural 
church  will  become  able  to  survive  the  curse 
of  short  pastorates  and  make  long  ones  effect- 
ive. 

There  are  five  persistent  and  difficult  fac- 
tors, which  I  commend  as  subjects  for  con- 
structive discussion.  Each  of  them  is  a  seri- 
ous problem  within  the  problem,  like  Ezeki- 
el's  '*  wheel  within  wheels."  Many  a  strong 
church  in  the  country  has  found  its  way  to 
usefulness  by  meeting  squarely  one  or  more 
of  these  ultimate  issues.  The  church  that 
meets  and  solves  them  all  will  be  the  model 
country  church  of  the  future  which  will  usher 
in  the  new  day  when  the  Open  Country  shall 
again  become  a  paradise.  Even  a  city  man 
must  confess  that  the  Garden  of  Eden  is 
strictly  rural ! 

— Professor  G.  Walter  Fiske. 


lo  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Discussion 

THE  CHURCH  IS  FUNDAMENTALLY  SOCIAL 

There  Is  a  prevalent  idea  that  the  Chris- 
tian man,  having  received  his  knowledge  of 
God,  goes  out  Into  the  country  community  to 
find  there  what  he  Is  to  do.  Now  the  Chris- 
tian Church  gathers  Christian  men  Into  it- 
self In  order  that  they  may  constitute  a  social 
organization.  The  Church  itself  is  a  social 
institution.  It  is  the  central  and  fundamen- 
tal social  institution.  It  has  distinctive  social 
functions.  It  conducts  the  worship  of  the 
community.  That  worship  is  the  gathering 
up  of  the  ideals  of  the  community  expressed 
by  Individuals  and  further  inculcated  by  the 
teachings  of  the  pulpit.  Therefore,  we 
do  not  take  the  Christian  religion  and  go  into 
the  community  to  find  what  needs  improve- 
ment, but  the  Christian  religion  organizes  it- 
self into  a  fellowship,  a  body  of  like-minded 
men,  associated  together  In  a  social  institu- 
tion. Now  a  social  institution  must  have 
social  functions;  it  must  find  Its  relation  to 
the  entire  life  of  the  community.     On  the 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         ii 

divine  side  it  is  of  course  open  to  the  vision 
of  God,  and  should  be  full  of  the  presence 
and  power  of  God,  but  I  cannot  conceive  it 
as  not  being  itself  a  fundamental  social  ex- 
pression.— Rev.  W'llhert  L.  Anderson,  D.  D. 

SALVATION  AND  SERVICE 
We  preachers  have  been  converting  people 
and  forgetting  that  the  Kingdom  is  the  end. 
I  heard  of  an  Irishman  who  went  out  on  a 
windy  day  and  tried  to  light  his  pipe.  He 
struck  two  or  three  matches  and  they 
all  went  out  and  he  only  had  one  more  left. 
Then  he  buried  his  shoulders  in  a  snow  drift 
and  struck  the  last  match  and  lighted  his 
pipe  and  the  match  still  burned  —  it  burned 
and  burned  and  he  threw  it  down  on  the 
snow  and  it  still  burned  and  it  burned  clean 
down  to  the  end.  Then  he  looked  at  his 
pipe  and  his  pipe  had  gone  out. 

— Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson. 

SOCIETY  THE  SUM  OF  ITS  UNITS 

It  seems  to  me  that  individual  regenera- 
tion and  social  regeneration  are  identical. 
Society  is  made  of  units  and  individuals. 
The  regeneration  of  the  individual,  being  the 


12  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

work  of  God,  accomplishes  the  regeneration 
of  society;  and  it  is  all  the  work  of  God  and 
none  of  it  the  work  of  the  Church,  except  as 
God  uses  the  Church  to  bring  men  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  atonement  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  His  saving  power.  No 
man  can  save  a  man,  but  God  can  use  a  man 
in  the  process  of  saving  men  and  social  re- 
generation in  my  mind  is  the  work  of  God 
saving  individuals  in  multitudes.  I  do  not 
see  how  you  can  distinguish  the  two  opera- 
tions as  though  they  were  different  in  char- 
acter.—  Dr.  W.  Russell  Collins. 

HOW    SHALL    THE    CHURCH    BE    RELATED    TO 
THE    FIELD? 

I  have  been  reading  the  Life  of  John 
Frederick  Oberlin  of  Waldersbach.  One 
will  go  far  to  find  a  more  interesting  ex- 
position or  a  better  exemplification  of  what 
the  minister  can  do  for  the  betterment  of 
his  country  parish,  along  agricultural,  eco- 
nomic, social  and  educational  lines,  than  In 
this  narrative  of  Oberlln's  long  life  and  work 
In  the  Alsatian  Mountains  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  ago. 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         13 

I  was  a  country  pastor  once  in  an  old- 
fashioned  Presbyterian  church.  I  also  was 
engaged  in  library  work,  club  work,  play- 
ground promotion  and  various  other  socio- 
logical efforts;  but  my  problem  was  how  to 
bring  the  church  and  these  other  things  to- 
gether. I  could  not  bring  these  things  to 
bear  actively  on  my  church  life.  Was  it 
desirable?  We  need  light  not  only  on  the 
question  of  sociological  work  in  the  country 
but  on  the  distinctive  relation  of  the  country 
church  to  social  problems.  Can  the  country 
church,  as  a  church,  do  anything,  or  can  the 
country  church  only  supply  with  altruistic 
motive  the  people  who  will  do  betterment 
work  along  various  lines  as  individuals,  or 
in  association  with  organizations  other  than 
the  church? — Rev.  Paul  Martin. 

SHOULD  NON-CHRISTIANS  BE  CHOSEN  AS 
LEADERS  ? 

I  am  a  radical  on  the  theological  side. 
Some  one  came  to  me  the  other  day  and 
asked  me  if  I  did  not  want  a  certain  man  in 
town  to  have  charge  of  a  Boys'  Club.  The 
proposed  leader  seldom  darkens  the  door  of 


14  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

a  church,  and  so  far  as  I  know  has  no  public 
religious  life.  How  Is  that  man  going  to 
lift  the  boys?  Are  they  going  to  be  lifted 
by  their  boot  straps?  Unless  the  leader  can 
stand  before  his  boys  as  a  profound  believer 
in  Jesus  Christ  I  do  not  understand  his  func- 
tion. It  seems  to  me  that  the  social  side  of 
this  question  is  being  emphasized  so  much 
that  we  are  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  we 
cannot  regenerate  society  unless  we  have 
something  above  ourselves  to  pull  us  up. 
Merely  organizing  clubs  and  societies  in  the 
rural  community  does  not  necessarily  mean 
that  boys  and  girls  by  coming  together  in 
groups  have  higher  Ideals  or  better  motives. 
We  need  to  inject  the  Christian  spirit  and 
ideals  into  our  work. 

Theology  is  a  "  speaking  concerning  God  " 

and  if  we  are  working  for  the  regeneration 

of  the  community,  I  know  of  no  better  way  to 

do  it  than  to  make  our  work  "  theological." 

— Arthur  O.  Prit chard. 

SOME  THINGS  THAT  CAN  BE  DONE 

The    remark   has   often   been   made   that 
country  life  Is  godless.     It  is,  to  some  extent. 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         15 

I  have  had  some  experience  for  five  and  a 
half  years  in  a  rural  district.  How  are  we 
going  to  get  God  into  country  life?  It  is 
largely  by  getting  God  into  every  vital  con- 
cern of  the  community.  I  will  give  an  illus- 
tration. In  our  town  we  had  a  good  many 
places  that  sold  liquor  illegally,  permitted 
gambling,  etc.  We  got  a  few  men  together 
and  we  closed  down  over  twenty-four  places. 
We  have  done  other  things.  We  have  car- 
ried out  some  of  the  suggestions  of  the  rural 
life  movement.  As  a  result  the  men  who 
were  alienated  from  the  Church  and  thought 
the  Church  did  not  mean  much  to  the 
country,  are  coming  back  into  the  Church 
and  they  are  getting  God  into  their  lives. 

Even  as  to  the  leader  that  is  not  distinctly 
Christian  at  present,  it  may  be  well  worth 
while,  if  he  has  a  good  strong  character,  to 
try  him  and  give  him  the  Boys'  Club,  and  as 
he  works  with  the  boys  he  will  begin  to 
realize  the  need  of  a  religious  life.  We 
tried  something  in  our  own  county  in  Ver- 
mont with  a  man  who  was  not  religious  at 
all,  but  was  given  a  definite  task  to  do  along 
moral  and  ethical  lines.     That  man  Is  get- 


iS  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

ting  Interested  In  the  church  and  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  interested  in  distinctly  re- 
ligious things. 

— Rev.  J.  A.  Scheuerle. 

A  TEACHER  THAT  LEARNED  THINGS 

Some  one  has  said  that  we  ought  to  take 
a  man  whether  he  is  a  believing  Christian  or 
not  and  give  him  a  severe  trial  before  mak- 
ing him  a  leader.  That  hits  me.  Two  or 
three  years  ago  when  our  Association  was 
contemplated  it  seemed  as  if  there  were  no 
leader  in  the  community  and  I  myself  was  not 
a  Christian,  but  Mr.  Pipher  prevailed  on  me 
to  do  what  I  could  for  the  boys.  We  or- 
ganized and  for  two  and  a  half  years  we 
went  along  in  a  sort  of  haphazard  way. 
The  superintendent  of  our  Sunday-school,  who^ 
Is  a  member  of  the  Boys'  Work  Committee, 
Mr.  Rosevear,  also  enlisted  my  services  In 
the  Sunday-school  and  for  about  a  year  I 
was  a  teacher  in  the  Sunday-school  and  I 
was  teaching  the  boys  something  that  I  knew 
nothing  about  myself.  About  six  months 
ago  in  our  Sunday-school  one  afternoon  the 
superintendent    asked    for    all    the    teachers 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         17 

who  were  praying  for  their  students  to  get 
on  their  feet  and  I  was  the  only  one  that 
did  not  do  so,  but  if  he  were  to  ask  now  I 
should  be  the  first  one  to  get  on  my  feet  be- 
cause I  now  see  the  light.  We  are  organiz- 
ing the  boys,  over  in  our  community,  with  the 
help  of  Mr.  Hart,  by  giving  them  something 
hard  to  do  and  if  our  boys  are  going  to  do 
anything  in  the  community  I  believe  it  is 
because  we  are  keeping  them  busy.  Give 
them  something  to  do,  something  of  import- 
ance. Give  them  a  real  man's  job.  We  are 
now  starting  a  series  of  afternoon  meetings 
and  I  believe  if  we  cannot  get  the  young  men 
to  go  to  the  church  we  can  get  them  into  the 
hall  which  we  rent  and  if  they  will  not  come 
to  Christ  we  will  take  Christ  to  them.  We 
are  enlisting  good  speakers,  men  of  fire,  and 
we  are  not  asking  them  to  come  to  the 
church.  We  are  having  the  meetings  in  the 
hall  where  they  feel  they  are  at  liberty  to 
come  and  I  believe  we  are  going  to  do  a  big 
work  in  our  little  community. 

— Raymond  Spargo. 


i8  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

A  NEEDY  PARISH 

I  come  originally  from  a  community  where 
theological  individualism  has  been  em- 
phasized in  revivals  until  we  have  folks  like 
the  man  who  came  to  a  minister  of  a  certain 
denomination  in  Boston  and  asked  alms  of 
him,  claiming  to  be  a  member  of  his  denomi- 
nation. In  response  the  minister  handed 
him  a  dollar,  saying:  *'  I  see  you  are  a 
member  of  my  denomination  all  right,  be- 
cause you  have  worn  your  knees  out  pray- 
ing and  the  seat  of  your  pants  out  back- 
sliding." I  come  from  a  community  where 
that  kind  of  individualism  has  been  empha- 
sized, and  I  think  we  have  about  as  many 
sinners  there  now  as  we  ever  had.  On  one 
of  my  visits  to  the  home  neighborhood,  a 
man  described  a  certain  local  minister  as  one 
that  did  not  have  enough  get-up  In  him  to 
eat  fried  chicken.  I  made  another  visit  and 
just  about  the  time  I  reached  my  brother's 
home,  an  old  neighbor  committed  suicide. 
He  did  it  because  of  a  lack  of  income  and 
because  of  general  misfortune.  There 
was  no  community  agency  to  give  him  help 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         19 

in  his  Isolation  and  need.  At  a  rural  fac- 
tory town,  I  saw  twelve  boys  playing  craps 
in  the  light  of  a  lantern  on  the  porch  of  the 
post  office  and  store,  and  that  also  showed 
the  absence  of  any  social  solidarity  —  the 
kind  that  would  have  given  those  boys  better 
training.  I  visited  a  farmer  who  was  at  one 
time  superintendent  of  a  Sunday-school  —  he 
had  held  that  position  for  twenty  years ;  his 
wife  lost  her  reason  because  of  the  pressure 
brought  about  by  the  lack  of  money  to  pay 
the  interest  on  a  mortgage.  The  farm  had 
been  advertised  for  sale  because  of  unpaid 
taxes ;  there  had  been  drought  for  three  sum- 
mers. That  man's  situation  was  due  pos- 
sibly to  a  lack  of  social  solidarity,  strong 
enough  to  help  him  out  of  a  present  diffi- 
culty. 

Later  on  in  the  evening  a  farmer  told  me 
of  a  country  minister  who  was  so  intoxicated 
when  he  made  a  pastoral  call  that  he  could 
not  ask  the  blessing  at  table.  When  he  went 
to  bed  he  took  the  wrong  overcoat  with  him, 
leaving  his  own  which  on  examination  was 
found  to  contain  a  flask  of  whiskey.  Now 
that  IS  the  situation  in  a  community  where 


20  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

we  have  had  this  kind  of  Individualism  em- 
phasized for  a  hundred  years.  We  have 
been  fumigating  the  Individual  Instead  of 
getting  rid  of  the  disease.  We  need  to  em- 
phasize both,  but  we  need  to  do  the  busi- 
ness of  sterlizing  the  water  supply  or  con- 
trolling It  by  the  community,  so  that  the 
energy  a  man  puts  forth  In  boiling  the  water 
for  himself  may  be  better  expended  In  some 
other  economic  occupation. 

— Professor  Edwin  L.  Earp. 

EVANGELISM  NEEDED 

After  having  lived  for  over  seventeen 
years  In  the  West  I  have  been  amazed  on 
my  return  to  the  East  to  find  the  condition  of 
some  of  the  rural  districts  what  they  are. 
We  need  missionaries  certainly  in  the  East 
today  and  perhaps  more  than  we  need  them 
In  the  West.  The  attitude  of  many  men  in 
the  average  rural  community  Is  really  terrible, 
and  I  think  that  while  I  accept  the  view  of 
Dean  FIske,  as  of  course  we  all  must,  so  far 
as  it  regards  the  need  of  a  better  environment 
both  physical  and  moral,  there  Is  an  even 
greater  need  of  what  may  be  called  in  a  strict 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         21 

sense  the  religious  and  spiritual  environment, 
which  only  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and 
Church  memberships  can  supply.  In  some 
small  communities  and  inland  districts,  there 
are  men  who  are  losing  their  idea  of  God; 
consequently  there  is  the  greatest  possible 
need  of  a  very  strong  evangelism  addressed 
to  the  individual  conscience.  Men  are  los- 
ing their  idea  of  the  nature  of  God,  and  of 
their  relation  to  God,  out  of  which  grows 
the  sense  of  moral  duty,  the  sense  of  ob- 
ligation. It  has  brought  to  me  a  great 
awakening  to  come  back  to  the  old  home 
country  here  in  the  East,  after  living  as  a 
missionary  in  the  West,  to  find  communities 
going  to  seed,  and  men  apparently  losing 
their  idea  of  God. 

None  of  us  would  have  this  social  spirit 
and  interest  in  human  betterment,  unless  we 
had  first  sat  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus;  and 
if,  as  a  Church,  we  want  to  make  communi- 
ties better,  we  cannot  afford  to  neglect  the 
individual  soul.  I  am  in  sympathy  with  any 
effort  to  improve  the  condition  of  our  rural 
communities  —  better  roads,  better  schools, 
better  everything,  but  I  do  not  believe  in  the 


22  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Church    abandoning    her    primary    mission. 
— Rev.  A.  P.  Gesner. 

THEOLOGY  IN  ACTION 
The  fundamental  problem  of  the  rural 
church  is  neither  sociological  nor  theological. 
It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  been  over-em- 
phasizing theology  and  we  can  over-empha- 
size sociology.  I  have  found  in  country 
communities  not  a  non-religious  attitude  — 
that  is,  men  and  women  are  strictly  religious, 
but  the  religion  is  not  practical.  It  is  not 
Christian  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term.  A 
great  many  of  the  men  of  the  country  com- 
munity use  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  They 
have  a  certain  theological  knowledge  of  God 
but  what  they  need  is  to  put  Christianity  into 
practice,  to  make  it  a  living  thing,  and  if  that 
can  be  done  sociologically,  then  I  should  say 
the  sociological  point  of  view  is  the  right 
view  to  take.  Neither  view  should  be  ig- 
nored. On  the  one  hand  I  feel  that  in  the 
religious  services  of  the  church  the  country 
community  needs  to  get  down  to  practical 
things.  Men  are  intensely  interested  in  prac- 
tical things,  for  they  have  to  make  ends  meet 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         23 

In  an  economical  way.  When  It  comes  to 
Christianity  we  pastors  ought  to  get  down 
on  our  hands  and  knees,  so  to  speak,  man 
with  man,  showing  a  personal  Interest  in  our 
fellows  and  helping  them  to  take  a  personal 
interest  In  God.  Vital  Christianity  must 
work  Itself  out  in  the  lives  of  the  people. 
And  then  on  the  other  hand  we  must  take  a 
divine  Father  who  knows  and  loves  and  cares 
for  the  common  interests  of  His  people  right 
into  the  homes  and  hearts  of  men  and  women 
wherever  we  find  them.  Let  us  be  done  with 
theorizing  and  get  to  realizing  and  making 
good  our  Christianity. 

— Rev.  James  P.  Gillespie. 

ELIMINATION  OF  THE  UNFIT 
I  wish,  In  a  word,  to  Inject  a  third  ele- 
ment into  this  scheme  of  Improvement,  along 
with  converting  of  the  individual  and  bet- 
tering the  surroundings  of  the  individual. 
Following  the  discovery  of  Mendel,  a  Ger- 
man monk.  In  the  field  of  heredity,  the  sug- 
gestion has  arisen  that  we  consider  the  elim- 
ination, scientifically  and  effectively,  from  the 
network   of   human    heredity   of   its    worst 


24  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

dross,  in  the  form  of  feeble-mindedness  and 
Inherited  tendency  to  evil.  This  would  make 
It  possible  when  once  accomplished,  wholly 
or  In  part,  to  have  only  normal  Individuals 
to  be  converted  and  to  be  subjected  to  a 
social  environment  cleaner,  stronger,  better 
In  every  way.  In  which  It  would  be  easier  to 
live  successfully. — Hon  W'tllet  M.  Hays. 

WHO  ARE  THE  UNFIT? 
Something  should  be  said,  I  think,  sup- 
plementary to  the  foregoing.  It  Is  also  true 
that  a  man,  woman  or  child  who  Is  called 
"  feeble-minded "  can  make  religious  ad- 
vancement to  a  certain  stage.  I  happened 
at  one  time,  to  be  living  very  near  to  a 
"  feeble-minded  "  Institution  In  Minnesota, 
and  I  was  very  much  Interested  to  find  there 
that  some  of  these  men  and  women,  who 
were  really  children  In  mind,  were  further  ad- 
vanced In  religion  than  a  great  many  people 
who  possess  their  full  mental  capacity, 
and  they  were  attentive  listeners  to  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel.  Moreover,  some  of 
them  knew  their  Bibles  a  great  deal  better 
than  many  normal  young  men  and  women 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         25 

know  theirs.  There  is  very  often  in  a  "  de- 
fective "  the  possibility  of  religious  develop- 
ment. There  is  a  soul  there.  There  is  a  re- 
ligious conscious  there. 

— Rev.  A.  P.  Gesner. 

SUMMING   UP 

I  have  simply  this  final  suggestion  to  offer. 
I  want  the  reader  to  think  of  the  relation  of 
a  single  message  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  coun- 
try church  —  especially  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  many  country  churches  are  going  down, 
all  over  this  country,  going  down  with  colors 
flying,  dying  from  exclusive  attention  to 
preaching,  hymn  singing  and  praying,  and 
nothing  else.  The  verse  that  I  am  thinking 
of  Is  this:  "  He  that  humbleth  himself  shall 
be  exalted."  The  country  church  that  ex- 
alteth  itself  shall  be  abased,  but  the  country 
church  that  humbleth  itself  in  generous,  un- 
selfish, sacrificial  service  of  its  community 
shall  be  exalted. 

I  have  convictions  on  this  question.  I  be- 
lieve profoundly  that  until  the  country  church 
does  broaden  its  vision  of  unselfish  service 


26  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

it  Is  on  the  way  to  death.  Community  serv- 
ice of  course  means  an  extension  of  program 
and  of  eHort  for  many  a  church,  and  many 
of  the  country  pastors  are  avoiding  it.  They 
fear  it  because  it  does  mean  so  much  work. 
But  it  is  the  opportunity  for  their  own  salva- 
tion and  the  salvation  of  their  church  through 
sheer  usefulness.  It  seems  to  me  that  they 
ought  to  welcome  the  chance.  Certainly  we 
should  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  we  have 
churches  and  pastors  like  Mr.  McNutt  and 
his  people  who  have  illustrated  this  so 
splendidly,  and  have  gained  a  new  success 
and  a  new  vitality  in  their  work  by  the  ap- 
preciation of  all  the  needs  of  the  community. 
I  believe  that  this  principle  is  perfectly  sound : 
A  church  should  take  an  inventory  of  its 
social  surroundings,  find  out  where  the 
gaps  are  in  the  social  structure,  and  then 
fill  the  gaps.  Let  it  work  indirectly,  by  in- 
spiration and  guidance  as  far  as  possible;  but 
never  shirk  Its  responsibility. 

— Professor  G.  Walter  Fiske. 

Review 

This  subject  may  be  reviewed  in  certain  of 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         27 

Its  important  aspects  by  considering  the  fol- 
lowing questions : 

1.  Is  the  church  a  social  institution  under 
the  operation  of  the  sociological  law? 

2.  Is  social  regeneration  the  sum  total  of 
individual  regeneration? 

3.  Is  there  any  essential  difference  be- 
tween cooperation  of  the  church  with  hos- 
pitals, orphans'  homes  and  granges,  civic  im- 
provement associations,  athletic  clubs,  etc.? 

4.  Is  an  emphasis  of  the  distinctively  re- 
ligious function  of  the  country  church  essen- 
tial to  its  social  activities? 

I.  In  answer  to  the  first  question,  "  Is 
the  church  a  social  institution  under  the  oper- 
ation of  sociological  law?  "  I  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  church  is  the  only  insti- 
tution in  the  country  save  one,  which  has 
survived.  It  has  proven  Its  social  fitness  by 
continued  existence  In  the  country,  when  so 
many  of  the  forms  of  social  and  economic 
life  have  been  destroyed  by  reason  of  eco- 
nomjc  pressure  and  change. 

The  church  Is  a  social  institution,  and,  like 
all  other  Institutions,  subject  to  the  operation 
of  natural  laws.     For  Instance,  the  investi- 


28  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

gatlons  made  In  the  Department  of  Church 
and  Country  Life  have  demonstrated  that 
the  church  In  the  country  Is  delicately  re- 
sponsive to  the  experience  of  the  people  In  get- 
ting a  living.  The  fact  that  the  church  in 
the  country  is  dominated  by  economic  con- 
ditions, shaped  by  them  and  in  many  cases 
destroyed  by  them,  is  a  sufficient  answer,  I 
think,  to  this  question.  Like  all  other  social 
institutions,  the  church  in  the  country  Is  at 
the  mercy  of  the  people's  economic  expe- 
rience. This  Is  not  to  say  that  the  individ- 
ual Christian  is  so  subject,  but  the  church  In 
which  he  is  a  member  Is  made  or  is  broken  by 
the  experience  of  the  community  in  getting 
a  living. 

2.  Is  social  regeneration  the  sum  total  of 
individual  regeneration?  Taking  the  largest 
view  of  the  question,  I  do  not  know.  The 
word  regeneration  Is  used  here  in  two  senses. 
For  all  practical  purposes,  however,  the 
answer  Is  "  No."  Individual  regeneration 
is  effected  by  the  work  of  God  and  not 
directly  by  the  work  of  man  at  all.  Speak- 
ing as  a  social  student,  one  can  only  say  that 
Christian  theologians  agree  that  regeneration 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         29 

of  the  Individual  Is  an  act  of  God,  beyond 
the  reach  of  human  Intelligence.  For  that 
reason,  telling  the  gospel  story  Is  an  easy 
task!  The  responsibility  of  saving  souls  Is 
with  God;  It  cannot  be  transferred  to  the 
preacher,  however  faithful.  Social  regen- 
eration, on  the  other  hand.  Is  the  work  of 
man.  It  Is  man's  best  approach  to  the  re- 
generation of  the  soul.  We  can  trace  the 
regeneration  of  a  community  or  of  a  state 
and  weigh  Its  causes;  there  Is  nothing  mys- 
terious about  it.  It  is  a  working  out  of 
natural  laws.  There  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  with  a  little  more  knowledge  our 
ability  to  analyze  the  regeneration  of  such  a 
country  as  Denmark  —  which  has  been  ac- 
complished In  less  than  sixty  years  —  would 
enable  to  us  to  account  for  every  cause  and 
to  locate  every  effect  as  precisely  as  In  a 
chemical  reaction. 

3.  There  is  a  great  difference  between 
the  cooperation  of  the  church  with  hospitals 
or  orphan  homes  and  the  cooperation  of  the 
church  with  granges,  civic  associations,  ath- 
letic clubs,  etc.  It  is  the  difference  between 
the  old  static  religion  and  the  new  dynamic 


30  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

religion,  which  we  call  social  service.  A  hos- 
pital is  for  the  healing  of  the  sick;  an  or- 
phanage is  an  institution  to  repair  the  waste 
and  stop  the  destruction  of  a  family. 
Neither  of  them  is  calculated  to  improve  the 
human  species.  At  the  best,  they  preserve 
the  status  of  human  life,  but  social  and  rec- 
reative enterprises  like  the  grange,  the  county 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the  vil- 
lage Improvement  society,  the  consolidated 
school,  are  constructive  in  their  character. 
They  are  intended  to  Improve  the  species. 
Such  work  is  dynamic  rather  than  static. 
This  distinction  is  vital  to  all  the  work  we 
are  considering.  We  are  undertaking  moral 
construction.  The  close  social  relations  of 
modern  life  render  this  possible.  So  long 
as  mankind  was  dispersed  over  this  wide 
continent  and  communities  were  centrifugal, 
owing  to  the  amount  of  free  land  and  the 
abundance  of  economic  opportunities  leading 
men  to  go  out  from  one  another  to  possess 
and  conquer  the  earth.  It  was  impossible  to 
improve  mankind.  Social  service  was  mere 
rescue  work,  the  saving  of  the  lost  and  the 
lifting    up    of    the    fallen.     We    are    con- 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         31 

fronted  In  the  Association  and  In  the  com- 
mon schools,  at  their  best  development,  with 
enterprises  which  are  building  up  the  human 
race  and  Improving  the  species. 

As  a  partial  answer  to  questions  often 
raised,  I  want  to  tell  about  a  country  church 
In  Florida,  N.  Y.  The  men's  club  In  that 
church  has  a  large  public  spirit.  It  has  dis- 
cussed, proposed  and  effected  the  lighting  of 
the  streets  of  the  town.  It  laid  plans  for 
the  organization  of  a  bank,  much  needed  In 
a  prosperous  town  about  half  of  whose  busi- 
ness Is  done  by  Polish  Immigrants.  This 
bank,  conceived  In  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
was  brought  to  life  by  the  cooperation  of 
Presbyterians  with  Polish  Catholics.  These 
hard-working  immigrants  realized  the  value 
for  the  growing  community  of  a  banking  in- 
stitution. It  Is  interesting  to  recall  that  the 
leader  of  the  men's  club  which  thus  served 
the  community,  was  the  town  blacksmith, 
who  had  for  fifty  years  shod  the  horses  and 
mended  the  wagons  of  the  town,  and  who 
knew  every  man,  horse  and  dog  In  a  radius 
of  ten  miles.  This  man  had  never  been  a 
member  of  the  church  until  the  men's  club 


33  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

In  the  old  church  of  the  community  under- 
took the  study  of  community  problems  and 
the  solution  of  them.  The  last  three  years 
of  his  life  were  his  best  years,  In  which  he 
used  his  abundant  knowledge  and  social 
sympathy  In  the  service  of  the  church,  of 
which  he  became  a  member. 

4.  In  the  fourth  place.  It  Is  my  belief 
that  emphasis  on  the  distinctively  religious 
function  of  the  country  church  Is  the  most 
essential  factor  In  Its  social  activity.  I  am 
convinced  that  the  prayer  of  the  Individual 
In  his  own  room,  and  the  worship  of  the 
community  In  public  are  vital  and  are  central 
In  social  service.  We  do  not  know  every- 
thing. Indeed  we  do  not  know  much;  the 
boundaries  of  our  social  knowledge  are 
quickly  passed.  In  all  this  work  we  are  deal- 
ing with  a  great  mystery;  but  we  have  enough 
knowledge  to  discover  the  working  of  God 
In  the  social  change  about  us.  We  know 
this,  that  the  most  divinely  Inspired  Insti- 
tution we  have  Is  the  most  sensitive  to  social 
change  and  the  most  responsive  to  social 
progress  —  that  Is,  the  Church. 

Above  all,  we  must  recognize  the  necessity 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  RURAL  CHURCH         33 

for  a  dynamic  spirit,  a  spirit  of  power.  This 
will  come  to  men  chiefly  as  a  result  of  the 
sense  of  God.  I  think  it  is  in  part  due  to 
fear,  to  dependence  and  to  the  desire  for  the 
satisfaction  of  common  needs.  These  emo- 
tions arise  out  of  economic  experience. 
They  are  the  sources  of  religious  experience, 
that  is,  of  prayer  and  of  worship;  and  these 
economic  experiences,  which  are  the  sources 
of  social  experiences,  are  also  the  sources  of 
religious  feeling. 

If  this  be  true,  it  is  profoundly  important 
to  keep  worship  and  prayer  at  the  center  of 
all  social  work.  This  Is  the  reason  why  I, 
for  my  part,  believe  In  the  Church,  and  I  be- 
lieve not  so  much  in  any  of  these  good  works 
the  Church  should  do,  as  I  believe  In  the 
function  of  worship  which  is  her  great  task, 
and  the  ministry  of  prayer  which  must  be 
the  atmosphere  of  all  of  her  work  In  all  time. 
— Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson. 


II 

STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACH- 
ING 

I  believe  we  ought  not  to  be  In  too  great 
a  hurry  to  get  at  direct  results.  As  dean  of 
a  theological  seminary  I  am  working  out  as 
well  as  I  can  the  problem  of  the  education 
of  the  minister.  I  feel  that  there  is  too 
much  Insistence  that  the  minister  shall  be 
trained  for  the  specific  work  which  he  is 
going  to  do  —  that  we  should  take  time  to 
tell  each  man  exactly  how  he  Is  to  carry  on  a 
religious  conversation  with  some  devout 
woman  who  Is  in  the  midst  of  trouble.  Now 
I  do  not  believe  it  is  worth  while  to  do  this, 
if  we  can,  but  we  ought  to  carry  the  student 
through  a  course  of  religious  thought  and  re- 
ligious life  which  will  enable  him  to  talk  to 
that  woman  in  a  helpful  way  when  he  is 
actually  with  her. 

Does  "  He  that  would  save  his  life  shall 
lose  it  "  apply  to  the  Church  as  well  as  to  in- 
dividuals? I  would  say  a  loud  "  Amen  "  to 
34 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       35 

the  contention  that  It  does.  I  believe  in  the 
universality  of  ethical  law.  There  has  been 
progress  In  our  thought  about  this  moral 
law.  New  conditions  create  new  relation- 
ships, so  we  state  our  thought  about  morals 
In  different  ways  at  different  times.  There 
Is  progress  In  the  application  of  ethical  prin- 
ciples. You  may  read  the  ethical  treatises 
of  a  hundred  years  ago  and  you  will  not 
find  specific  teachings  concerning  your  duty 
In  some  modern  situations,  as  when  you  are 
standing  In  the  doorway  of  a  crowded  trolley 
car;  yet  there  Is  a  chance  right  there  for  the 
application  of  our  ethics. 

The  country  life  of  today  Is  not  just  what 
it  was  twenty-five  years  ago,  but  the  country 
community  Itself  does  not  altogether  know 
It,  nor  do  the  city  people,  nor  do  the  theo- 
logical professors.  We  see  it  In  some  par- 
ticulars, but  It  Is  true  In  a  dozen  ways  In 
which  we  do  not  see  it.  The  country  church 
needs  to  realize  that  its  religion  and  morality 
can  be  applied  in  many  new  ways,  different 
from  the  ways  In  vogue  twenty-five  years 
ago.  There  Is  a  moral  impulse  which  has 
tome  into  our  social  life  and  which  must  be 


36  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

brought  Into  the  life  of  the  Church,  which  Is 
not  merely  that  of  Individuals  but  that  of 
the  community. 

Our  question,  whether  an  ethical  principle 
applies  to  an  Institution  as  well  as  to  an  in- 
dividual, raises  one  as  to  the  nature  of  in- 
stitutions themselves.  They  are  not  merely 
aggregations  of  men,  but  they  are  composed 
of  men  who  have  come  together  for  certain 
definite  purposes.  Just  as  soon  as  I  accept 
membership  In  any  society  —  and  even  more 
when  I  accept  an  official  relationship  to  that 
society  —  my  responsibility  Is  something 
other  than  an  Individual  one;  and  In  the 
Church,  there  Is  something  more  than  individ- 
ual responsibility.  An  institution  can  act 
only  with  the  cooperation  of  those  who  con- 
stitute it;  but  those  who  compose  its  member- 
ship have  not  full  liberty  of  action  as 
Isolated  and  unrelated  Individuals.  They 
are  limited  in  their  action  by  the  Institutional 
life,  a  fact  which  It  is  important  for  us  to 
take  Into  account.  So  the  social  and  moral 
responsibilities  of  the  Church  do  not  come 
from  Its  status  as  an  impersonal  institution, 
nor  from  duties  of  the  Individuals  who  as  an 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       37 

aggregation  make  up  its  membership;  they 
come  rather  from  an  institution  which  blends 
in  with  its  own  corporate  functions  all  those 
operations  that  manifest  the  moral,  social 
and  religious  responsibilities  of  the  individ- 
uals who  are  themselves  under  the  influence 
of  the  institutional  life  of  the  Church. 

— Dean  William  H.  Allison. 

Discussion 

THE    APPEAL     FOR    THE     STRONG     COUNTRY 
MINISTER 

I  am  interested  in  theological  education 
and  the  sociological  side  in  the  theological 
seminary;  and  the  problem  of  standards  of 
teaching  in  reference  to  the  country  church 
problem  is  a  very  vital  one  it  seems  to  me. 
One  of  the  questions  that  came  up  at  an  in- 
ter-seminary conference  in  New  Haven  was 
that  of  the  sources  from  which  we  draw 
ministerial  students.  It  was  shown  there 
that  the  majority  of  men  for  the  ministry 
heretofore  have  come  from  the  country  dis- 
tricts, and  that  we  are  having  now  a  falling 
off  in  members  there.  It  is  not  only  the 
country,   however,  that  is  failing  to  supply 


38  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Its  men.  We  are  not  drawing  from  classes 
represented  In  various  Industrial  groups. 
Now,  the  standards  of  teaching  with  refer- 
ence to  the  country  church  will  have  to  do 
with  the  character  of  the  men  who  under- 
take the  rural  church  problem. 

I  have  been  through  a  theological  sem- 
inary and  have  studied  others.  There  has 
been  practically  no  appeal  made  to  strong 
men,  who  have  come  out  of  the  country,  to 
take  up  the  country  church  problem  as  a  life 
work.  Professor  FIske  tells  me  that  he  has 
been  teaching  rural  sociology  since  the  be- 
ginning of  last  year  and  I  hope  to  do  the 
same  next  year.  I  believe  that,  because  of 
the  popular  movement  to  the  large  towns  and 
cities,  there  has  been  a  great  change  In  the 
character  of  the  men  available  for  country 
work.  Even  mothers  may  hesitate  to  pray 
that  their  sons  be  made  ministers  on  the  kind 
of  income  they  are  likely  to  get.  I  should 
not  wish  my  boy  to  become  a  minister  of  a 
type  now  common  In  the  country.  I  met  a 
mother  In  the  country  the  other  day  who 
said:  "  I  am  getting  bitter  because  I  have 
more  work  In  my  home  than  I  ever  had." 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       39 

There  were  four  children  — two  boys  and 
two  girls  —  who  are  old  enough  and  bright 
enough  to  help  her.  The  oldest  girl  had 
just  gone  away  to  teach  school.  Now  I  say 
religious  teaching  somewhere  ought  to  in- 
spire somebody  to  help  that  mother  during 
these  years  when  her  age  is  coming  on  and 
she  has  less  help  in  the  home  than  she  had 
at  any  time  in  her  life.  I  say  the  Church  of 
today  should  inspire  some  one  In  that  home 
to  help  that  mother  so  that  some  day  she  will 
at  least  have  a  rest,  and  a  better  time  in 
her  home  instead  of  a  bigger  task  In  her  old 
age.  I  should  like  to  have  something  get 
Into  our  theological  education  —  which  too 
seldom  directs  men  to  the  country  church  — 
to  produce  a  conviction  In  men  that  the  young 
candidate  for  country  parishes  is  volunteer- 
ing for  a  great  service,  a  bigger  job  for  a 
man  than  almost  any  field  of  today.  The 
hardest  fields  the  Church  has  to  work  are 
the  lost  home  field,  and  one  of  them  is  the 
country  district.  I  think  we  can  educate 
men  to  develop  what  I  call  a  social  center 
for  the  Church  rather  than  the  circuit  system. 
I  would  illustrate  that  from  one  community 


40  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

I  know  about  where  there  Is  a  central  church 
with  four  chapels  that  would  correspond  to 
a  Methodist  circuit.  The  central  life  of 
that  whole  community  Is  In  the  central  church 
where  a  big  congregation  assembles  every 
Sunday  morning.  So  when  a  young  woman 
gets  a  new  Easter  bonnet,  or  a  young  man  a 
new  side-bar  buggy,  even  the  motive  of  dis- 
play can  be  sanctified  and  given  a  religious 
significance. 

— Professor  Edwin  L.  Ear  p. 

THE  SMALLER  COMMUNITIES  ARE  NOT  SEND- 
ING OUT  MEN 

I  am  vitally  Interested  In  the  problem  of 
leaders  for  the  country  church.  In  addi- 
tion to  my  work  as  a  pastor  I  am  secretary 
of  an  organization  known  as  the  New  Jersey 
Baptist  Educational  Society,  and  for  the  last 
ten  years  I  have  supervised  every  year  the 
training  of  between  thirty  and  forty  young 
men  and  women  who  are  preparing  for  re- 
ligious work.  Quite  recently  I  went  over 
the  matter  of  the  character  of  the  community 
which  furnished  these  young  people  and  dis- 
covered that  the  average  country  church  Is 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       41 

not  sending  out  as  many  men  for  the  ministry 
nor  for  any  other  kind  of  religious  work  as 
is  usually  supposed.  At  this  moment  I  can- 
not recall  that  the  number  was  above  three 
for  that  period.  It  is  increasingly  evident 
that  in  New  Jersey  the  bulk  of  the  men  who 
enter  the  ministry  come  from  churches  in 
communities  of  between  15,000  and  50,000 
population.  If  my  experience  counts  for 
anything  it  would  indicate  that  the  country 
churches  are  not  furnishing  the  same  quota 
of  ministers  that  they  did  half  a  century  or 
less  ago.  But  wherever  there  is  a  strong 
vigorous  rural  church  which  stands  well  and 
has  evidence  of  power,  possessing  real 
strength  and  gripping  the  community  prob- 
lem, there  we  find  young  men  who  are  im- 
pressed with  the  opportunities  that  open  for 
religious  and  social  service.* 

— Rev.  Frank  A.  Smith. 

DIFFICULTIES    IN    ADJUSTING    COURSES 

I  was  born  in  the  country,  taught  in  a  coun- 
try church,   my  pastorate  began  in  a  rural 

*  This  situation  may  be  local  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  percentage  of  the  population  living  in  rural  dis- 
tricts is  unusually  small  in  New  Jersey. 


42  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

church,  my  friends  and  relatives  are  largely 
in  such  churches,  and  I  spend  my  summers 
among  them.  I  feel,  therefore,  that  al- 
though I  am  a  professor  in  a  theological 
seminary,  I  have  an  interest  in  our  rural 
problem. 

My  reply  to  many  of  the  criticisms  of  sem- 
inaries is  that  I  do  not  know  of  any  one  of 
them  that  does  not  teach  Sociology  and 
Ethics;  I  do  not  know  of  any  in  which  the 
professors  do  not  get  together  in  deep  earn- 
estness to  inquire  what  they  can  do  to  fit 
their  students  for  both  city  and  rural  work. 
Every  seminary  in  the  land  has  changed  its 
curriculum  from  A  to  Z  in  the  last  ten  years, 
adjusting  itself  to  our  changing  conditions. 

But  there  are  great  difficulties  that  the  out- 
sider is  quite  liable  to  overlook.  We  put  a 
student  through  a  very  well  chosen  course 
for  city  life,  he  goes  out  into  a  city  pastorate 
and  if  he  has  not  the  sort  of  timber  in  him 
to  succeed  there  and  drifts  into  a  rural  field 
better  adapted  to  his  temperament,  then  all 
his  sociology  of  a  special  sort  is  wasted,  so 
far  as  it  has  any  practical  application  to  his 
field.     Another  man   says,    "  I   want  to   be 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       43 

fitted  for  rural  work."  We  give  him  the 
best  we  can  for  that  work.  He  goes  into 
the  country  and  makes  a  success.  Immedi- 
ately some  city  church  calls  him  into  the  city 
and  he  has  the  whole  problem  of  the  city  to 
learn.  What  we  did  for  him  in  country 
training  must  be  laid  aside.  It  is  no  easy 
task  for  a  seminary  to  adjust  a  course  to  a 
student's  future  needs  when  no  one  knows 
where  he  is  to  go. 

— Dr.  Alvah  S.  Hohart. 

IS  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  YET  A  ''  BIG  MAN'S 
JOB"? 

The  hardest  word  I  have  heard  against 
the  theological  seminary  is  entirely  deserved. 
I  believe  that  until  a  very  recent  period, 
within  almost  a  decade,  the  seminaries  have 
not  been  aware  of  their  function  or  their 
opportunity.  At  the  same  time  I  think  it 
ought  to  be  recognized  that  the  seminary 
which  today  does  not  teach  Christian  ethics 
and  sociology  is  everywhere  admitted  to  be 
a  hopeless  back  number. 

Now  the  question  has  been  asked  —  why 
do  not  the  seminaries  engage  themselves  with 


44  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

this  problem  and  contribute  to  Its  solution? 
And  the  responsibility  Is  laid  upon  the  sem- 
inary. I  want  to  say  this  one  word  on  be- 
half of  the  seminary.  The  professor  of  pas- 
toral theology  on  whose  shoulders  the  re- 
sponsibility for  this  matter  would  primarily 
rest  Is  not  usually  a  country  man.  I  myself, 
teaching  In  that  department,  know  nothing 
about  the  country  problem;  but  I  want  to 
know  about  It.  One  of  the  things  that  has 
Interested  me  Is  the  fact  that  the  question  is 
so  insistent  before  the  minds  of  Christian 
workers.  They  have  come  to  a  realization 
of  the  practical  necessity  represented  by  the 
word  "  cooperation." 

Now  take  that  other  Idea  which  Is  a  splen- 
did one  In  itself  —  that  we  should  offer  this 
country  work  to  our  young  men  as  a  life 
investment  in  the  way  of  sacrifice  and  that 
we  believe  that  this  Is  a  "  big  man's  job." 
As  the  situation  Is  at  present  It  Isn't  a  "  big 
man's  job  "  at  all.  I  do  not  believe  that  a 
man  of  parts  who  might  naturally  or  reason- 
ably be  expected  to  sacrifice  his  ambition  for 
the  sake  of  Christ  and  of  the  work  In  the 
country  should  be  asked  to  waste  his  spiritual 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       45 

energy  under  the  conditions  of  denomina- 
tional rivalries  and  jealousies  which  now  ex- 
ist. The  difficulty  lies  back  of  the  theo- 
logical seminary,  in  the  competitive  character 
of  the  country  work. 

—Rev.  G.  A.  Foley,  D.  D. 

KEEPING  THE  STRONG  MAN  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

I  can  appreciate  the  point  of  view  of  those 
men  in  the  theological  seminaries  who  feel 
that  the  problem  of  the  country  church  means 
something  to  them  because  they  realize  that 
the  country  church  no  longer  is  the  source  of 
supply  for  the  clergy  that  it  used  to  be.  I 
sympathize  with  the  idea.  But  the  theo- 
logical seminaries  will  not  take  the  leadership 
that  they  ought  to  have  in  this  country 
church  problem  so  long  as  they  place  the 
emphasis  on  the  function  of  the  country 
church  in  breeding  ministers.  It  is  a  legit- 
imate function  but  not  the  fundamental  thing. 
I  speak  of  this  because  that  idea  of  the 
country  as  a  reservoir  for  city  supply  enters 
into  so  much  of  our  discussion  concerning 
the  rural  problem.  We  want  rural  people 
to  be  good  because  they  are  going  to  the 


46  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

city.  But  we  must  remember  that  the  fun- 
damental rural  problem  Is  not  that  of  serv- 
ing as  a  supply  of  body  and  of  brain  for 
the  city.  That  Is  one  of  the  country's  func- 
tions and  that  partly  Is  why  the  rural  prob- 
lem Is  a  national  question.     But  even  more 

—  It  Is  a  question  of  the  retention  of  men 
and  women  of  the  right  sort  In  the  country, 
the  building  up  of  the  right  sort  of  rural 
Institutions  for  the  sake  of  the  people  who 
stay  and  not  for  the  sake  of  the  people  who 
go.     The  trouble  with  a  good  many  people 

—  I  think  of  many  clergymen  who  go  Into 
the  country  community  —  Is  that  they  have 
not  yet  got  that  point  of  view. 

The  Church  Must  Hold  Up  An  Ideal  It 
Is  not  the  first  business,  or  perhaps  not 
at  all  the  business  of  the  Church  to  teach  agri- 
culture. However,  the  leadership  In  the 
country  church  ought  to  appreciate  a  fact 
that  we  cannot  get  away  from  —  that  In 
thousands  of  our  rural  communities  a  strong 
church  cannot  be  built  up  until  the  economic 
question  has  been  put  ahead  toward  solution. 
In  other  words  we  have  got  to  have  better 
cattle  and  corn  growing  if  we  are  to  have 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       47 

better  missions  and  philanthropy  or  even  a 
better  church.  On  the  other  hand  we  want 
to  remember  that,  In  those  rich  regions  where 
die  problem  of  cattle  and  corn  has  been  put 
forward  to  economic  success,  the  work  of  the 
Church  Is  just  as  significant  and  as  difficult. 
My  main  thought  Is  that  a  part  of  the  task 
of  the  country  church  Is  to  give  both  to  the 
poor  and  to  the  rich  farmers  a  new  concep- 
tion of  the  fundamental  character  of  their 
work.  Now  the  poor  and  the  rich  farmers 
and  those  who  are  teaching  them  better  cat- 
tle and  corn  growing  have  In  mind  the 
economic  and  Industrial  thought  of  profit  and 
that  Is  all  right.  But  I  believe  that  the 
country  church  must  hold  up  as  an  Ideal  the 
thought  that  this  work  of  cattle  and  corn 
growing  Is  not  merely,  or  even  first  of  all, 
a  question  of  profit,  but  a  means  of  service. 
You  may  say  that  is  a  hazy  notion,  but  It 
represents  what  has  got  to  be  done  and  It  Is 
one  of  the  greatest  tasks  of  the  Church.  If 
the  country  church  cannot  do  that  I  do  not 
know  what  else  It  can  do.  We  must  per- 
meate country  life,  the  country  Institutions, 
with  just  this  one  great  thought  —  Christian 


48  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

service  through  the  farming  business  and  the 
upbuilding  of  the  community. 

— President  Kenyon  L.  Butterfield. 

NEED  FOR  PRACTICAL  COURSES 
In  the  country  community  the  Church  is 
in  a  position  where  its  minister  can  get  under 
a  hundred  per  cent  of  the  community  job. 
It  is  a  big  man's  job  but  the  trouble  is  it  has 
not  been  tackled  as  a  big  man's  job.  The 
rural  minister  needs  practical  ideas  to  take 
home  with  him  Into  the  rural  church  and 
Into  the  community.  At  the  Amherst  Con- 
ference for  rural  ministers  I  got  more  prac- 
tical working  ideas  in  three  days  for  meet- 
ing the  vital  conditions  In  my  community 
than  I  did  in  my  theological  course  in  three 
years.  I  got  the  religious  inspiration  from 
my  theological  course  but  did  not  get  prac- 
tical ideas  for  my  job.  In  the  county  where 
I  am  at  work  there  are  about  fifty  rural 
ministers.  Of  these  only  five  or  six  are  un- 
dertaking community  extension  work,  en- 
deavoring to  solve  their  rural  problem. 
The  others  have  no  idea  of  what  that  prob- 
lem is.     It  seems  to  me  absolutely  essential 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       49 

that  the  theological  institutions  should  in- 
troduce practical  rural  sociology  in  their 
courses  of  study,  conferring  with  those  who 
are  making  great  successes  along  practical 
and  definite  lines.  Then  there  would  be 
more  ministers  coming  from  the  rural  church 
and  more  ministers  going  into  the  rural 
churches.  I  would  voice  with  all  the 
feelings  I  have  the  deep  need  of  getting  prac- 
tical working  ideas  into  our  theological  sem- 
inaries for  rural  districts. 

— Rev.  J,  A.  Scheuerle. 

EXTENSION  WORK 

The  suggestion  that  there  should  be  an  at- 
tempt to  organize  study  groups  or  clubs  in 
rural  communities,  to  study  the  community 
problem,  struck  me  as  being  most  valuable. 
The  extension  work  of  our  state  agricultural 
colleges  Is  coming  to  be  fairly  well  organized 
although  it  is  very  new.  To  date,  the  chief 
attention  has  been  given  to  the  technical  side. 
But  there  are  being  organized  departments 
of  agricultural  economics  in  our  agricultural 
colleges  and  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when 
there  will  be  men  at  these  institutions  who 


so  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

can  map  out  courses  of  reading  and  study 
and  who  can  even  give  correspondence 
courses  and  lecture  courses  along  the  line  of 
community  work.  All  this  Is  part  of  one  of 
the  most  profound  educational  movements 
of  the  time,  so  far  as  It  relates  to  our  rural 
life.  We  have  extension  schools  and  many 
other  schemes  which  are  utilizing  the  service 
of  our  agricultural  college  for  technical  and 
business  ends.  In  my  judgment  the  next 
great  step  In  our  agricultural  education  Is  a 
plan  which  handles  the  community  problem 
In  just  the  same  way.  Hence  the  people  In 
the  rural  communities  should  give  more  con- 
sistent thought  and  systematic  study  to  the 
problems  of  the  community  as  well  as  to  the 
problems  of  the  home  and  of  the  farm. 

— President  Kenyan  L.  Butterfield. 

COUNTRY  EDITOR  VS.   TRAINED  PREACHER 

At  Amherst,  I  received  more  from  the 
courses  of  lectures  than  from  the  conference. 
The  testimony  of  other  ministers  there  was 
similar.  It  was  generally  acknowledged  that 
the  central  difficulty  with  the  country  church 
lies  In  wrong  training  of  the  average  minis- 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       51 

ter.  He  is  trained  for  the  city.  His  ideal 
is  the  city.  Everything  centers  in  the  city  — 
nothing  in  the  country. 

I  met  a  country  minister  on  Broadway  and 
the  last  thing  he  said  to  me  was  that  some 
day  he  expected  to  land  in  a  New  York 
church  or  to  have  a  field  near  by.  Half  a 
dozen  country  ministers  have  expressed  the 
same  sentiment  in  my  hearing  recently. 

On  returning  from  the  Amherst  confer- 
ence, I  happened  to  have  a  conversation  with 
a  certain  country  editor.  I  realized  at  once 
that  here  was  a  man  who  saw  the  community 
as  a  unit  and  entered  into  all  its  interests, 
good  and  bad.  On  the  whole  he  was  trying 
to  build  it  up,  and  had  an  ideal  for  it  which 
he  was  trying  to  "  carve  in  the  marble  real." 

While  he  was  familiar  with  all  the  com- 
munity Institutions  and  their  politics  and  poli- 
cies, and  considering  carefully  the  effect  of 
all  that  was  going  forward,  the  ministers  of 
the  place  have  all  felt,  probably,  that  their 
position  and  understanding  was  superior  to, 
and  broader  than,  his.  His  education  does 
not  compare  with  theirs  when  It  comes  to  the 
classics  and  theory,  but  in  practical  value  as 


52  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

a  community  leader,  he  continually  outgen- 
erals them  all,  and  Initiates,  or  at  least  as- 
sists, a  good  part  of  what  is  going  on. 

One  difficulty  with  the  Church  and  the 
ministry  Is  that  there  Is  a  continual  insistence 
upon  being  the  leader,  Instead  of  a  worker 
with  the  rest  of  the  community  Institutions 
and  their  members.  So  long  as  this  atti- 
tude continues  there  can  be  little  sympathy 
and  understanding  and  confidence  between 
the  different  factors.  There  must  be  a 
democratic,  rather  than  an  aristocratic,  spirit 
manifested.  It  is  no  longer  a  question  of 
finding  a  few  men  who  have  money,  but  of 
giving  everybody  a  chance  to  work  for  the 
great  end,  namely  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

The  key  to  the  country  church  situation  Is 
the  same  that  Christ  used.  He  looked  upon 
every  man.  Institution,  activity,  or  interest 
in  the  community  as  an  Important  part  of  the 
problem,  or  as  means  to  the  great  end  —  the 
Kingdom  —  the  ideal  and  ultimate  com- 
munity. He  looked  upon  a  marriage-feast, 
a  street  incident,  the  play  of  children,  the 
attitude  toward  women,  the  condition  of  the 
poor,  and  a  thousand  other  matters,  as  all 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       53 

having  a  significant  bearing  on  the  main 
problem.  He  devoted  most  of  His  time 
and  attention  and  divine  energy  to  these  mat- 
ters which  the  Church  and  ministry  are  too 
apt  to  look  upon  as  side  issues,  or  by-prod- 
ucts, only  distantly  related  to  the  problem, 
while  he  considered  them  to  constitute  the 
problem  itself,  and  religious  instruction  as  a 
light  upon  It.  These  elements  were  not  in- 
cidental to  the  Gospel;  they  were  the  Gospel. 
— Rev.  Charles  F.  Taylor. 

GOD  AND  CAESAR 

*'  Is  It  essential  that  the  Church  should  in- 
spire men  to  better  work  in  cattle  and  corn 
growing  as  In  missions  and  philanthropy?  " 
This  Is  nothing  but  the  raising  of  the  old 
question  as  to  the  distinction  between  the 
secular  and  the  religious.  For  convenience 
we  may  make  a  distinction  between  them. 
Yet  we  remember  what  Jesus  said  when  they 
brought  to  Him  the  question  about  the  trib- 
ute money  —  how  He  asked  them  to  show 
Him  the  penny  and  then  spoke  those  words 
so  pregnant  with   meaning,    "  Render  unto 


54  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  unto 
God  the  things  that  are  God's."  Caesar 
stands  far  above  us.  We  idealize  Caesar 
and  that  which  he  stands  for.  Caesar  repre- 
sented almost  the  acme  of  human  thought  In 
the  direction  of  human  authority  —  grand- 
eur, majesty,  sovereignty.  "  Render  unto 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's."  No, 
we  have  not  yet  met  our  human  responslblll- 
ties.  But  Is  God  nothing  but  a  Caesar  of  a 
little  bigger  stature?  Do  we  have  the  rule 
of  three  here?  Do  we  paraphrase  this, 
"  The  individual  Is  to  Caesar  as  Caesar  Is  to 
God?  "  Is  not  an  infinite  factor  introduced 
In  the  mere  mention  of  God?  Is  not  God 
Infinitely  above  Caesar,  though  Caesar  may 
represent  the  height  of  human  authority? 
It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  we  come  to 
the  essential  principle  here.  Let  us  do  unto 
our  fellow  men  what  we  ought  to  do  unto 
them.  Let  us  not  forget  to  render  unto 
Caesar  whatever  Is  his  due.  But  let  us  also 
remember  that  there  Is  this  religious  mes* 
sage,  infinitely  higher  than  the  first  member 
of  the  parallel,  but  Inseparably  connected 
with    It.     Sociology    will    never    save    the 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       55 

world,  but  when  has  God  withdrawn  Him- 
self from  the  social  life  of  men? 

— Dean  William  H.  Allison. 

Review 

The  question  of  interest  here  is  whether 
Christian  teaching  by  the  responsible  or- 
ganizations should  be  widened  to  include  the 
discussion  of  principles  and  doctrines  pertain- 
ing to  those  social  matters  which  we  all 
agree  to  be  of  fundamental  importance  in 
the  rural  problem.  The  question  is  whether 
the  theological  seminary,  the  Christian 
Church,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion and  other  definitely  organized  religious 
bodies  should  broaden  their  teaching  to  cover 
economic  and  social  topics. 

I.  A  new  rural  community  requires  re- 
direction and  new  application  of  ethical  prin- 
ciples. These  adjustments  cannot  be  made 
hastily.  There  must  be  protracted  study  and 
experiment,  and  there  is  a  call  for  additional 
instruction,  in  theological  seminaries  and 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Train- 
ing Schools,  for  a  better  educational  use  of 
the    pulpit    and    other    agencies,    including, 


S6  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

especially,  personal  leadership  and  local  or- 
ganizations. 

We  are  concerned  with  community  re- 
direction, and  there  must  be  somewhere  an 
Intelligent  understanding  of  the  problems  of 
community  life.  If  anybody  Is  to  attempt 
this  task,  he  must  do  It  Intelligently  and  with 
an  understanding  of  the  principles  Involved. 
It  Is  urged  that  the  primary  responsibility  In 
this,  so  far  as  the  Christian  Church  Is  con- 
cerned, rests  upon  those  who  are  entrusted 
with  the  work  of  training  ministers;  that  the 
responsibility  comes  In  turn  to  the  minister 
In  the  pulpit;  that  It  belongs  also  to  those 
who  give  Instruction  to  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  leaders;  and  that  this  teach- 
ing may  be  continued  In  classes  and  by  other 
local  agencies. 

2.  The  Church  Is  more  than  an  aggre- 
gation of  Individuals.  It  organizes  Individ- 
uals and  federates  their  powers  with  special 
reference  to  the  community.  There  Is  need 
of  a  survey  of  conditions  and  forces  that  a 
suitable  program  may  be  devised  and  fol- 
lowed. 

The  first  proposition  deals  with  the  study 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       57 

of  these  forces  and  principles  for  the  sake 
of  understanding  them.  This  is  not  specu- 
lative science,  it  is  practical  science;  but  this 
second  proposition  deals  with  the  same  study- 
as  yet  more  imperative  because  there  is  an 
institution  of  peculiar  power  available  for 
service  in  the  community. 

3.  It  is  a  mistake  to  estimate  rural  work 
solely  or  chiefly  from  its  contribution  to  the 
universal  Church  in  ministers,  recruits,  or  re- 
sources or  from  its  reenforcement  of  the 
cities.  The  rural  community  must  be  con- 
served and  developed  for  its  own  values. 
The  church  should  serve  the  community, 
making  rural  life  attractive,  holding  desir- 
able people  in  the  country,  and  promoting 
the  happiness  and  welfare  of  all  the  people 
in  every  possible  way. 

4.  While  religious  truths  and  duties  are 
primary  themes  of  instruction,  it  is  impor- 
tant to  apply  principles  and  embody  ideals 
in  economic  and  social  life,  to  the  end  that 
here  may  be  an  economic  basis  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  community  and  a  social  environ- 
ment that  expresses  the  Christian  Gospel. 
Ideals  are  to  be  embodied  in  life.     Princi- 


S8  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

pies  are  to  be  applied  In  conduct.  All  this 
requires  careful  study  and  at  times  system- 
atic and  faithful  Instruction. 

5.  The  Church  must  learn  this  new 
mode  of  service,  and  It  may  follow  the  new 
way  in  the  assurance  that  churches  as  well 
as  individuals  that  seem  to  lose  their  lives 
in  service  shall  save  them. 

The  question  may  arise,  Why  does  this 
economic  and  social  instruction  have  right- 
ful place  in  the  religious  teaching  of  the 
Church  and  the  organizations  that  are  as- 
sociated with  the  Church.  I  think  there 
are   four  simple  answers. 

(i.)  This  new  and  better  human  society 
is  a  society  according  to  the  will  of  God 
and  the  mind  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  the 
Church  and  these  social  organizations  are 
in  the  world  to  do  the  will  of  God  and  to 
bring  Into  reality  what  Is  according  to  the 
mind  of  Jesus  Christ,  then  here  Is  a  great 
task  of  the  Church  —  a  task  to  be  prosecuted 
intelligently,  scientifically,  and  with  a  wisdom 
that  rests  upon  protracted  study. 

(2.)  A  second  reason  for  this  Is  that 
the   Church  is  concerned  with  all  idealism. 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       59 

This  newly  directed  society  Is  a  social  Ideal, 
and  as  such  It  concerns  fundamentally  the 
Christian  Church  which  conceives  everything 
In  the  terms  of  Idealism.  The  Christian  min- 
ister Is  not  to  teach  details  of  a  better  farming 
and  better  social  organization  so  much  as  he 
Is  to  Inspire  In  the  hearts  of  all  the  people 
the  ideal  to  conduct  farming  In  the  best  pos- 
sible v/ay,  to  build  homes  that  shall  be  the 
finest  conceivable,  to  do  all  things  of  a  social 
nature  In  the  noblest  manner  and  after  the 
highest  conceivable  pattern.  The  Christian 
Church  lifts  all  things  to  that  beautiful  and 
splendid  idealism,  and  out  of  that  idealism 
of  the  Church  must  come  the  uplift  of  the 
community.  It  has  been  said  again  and  again 
that  we  cannot  do  this  without  the  religious 
forces.  We  cannot,  because  It  is  a  work  of 
Idealism,  and  the  fostering,  the  teaching,  the 
developing  of  Christian  ideals  Is  committed 
to  the  Christian  Church. 

(3.)  There  is,  thirdly,  a  great  need,  and 
the  Christian  Church  is  animated  by  the  gos- 
pel of  love.  Here  are  things  to  be  done  to 
help  people,  to  add  to  their  happiness,  to  en- 
rich their  life.     We  conceive  the  mission  of 


6o  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

the  Church  In  the  broad  outlines  of  commu- 
nity development,  of  human  welfare,  of  hu- 
man well-being,  of  human  good.  Now  what 
Is  the  Christian  Church  for,  If  It  Is  not  to  pro- 
mote human  good;  and  If  It  Is  to  promote 
human  good,  how  Is  It  to  do  this  unless  in- 
struction Is  systematically  given? 

(4.)  Last  of  all  there  Is  the  urgent  and 
moving  thought  that  we  are  approaching  a 
great  crisis.  We  know  how  the  subsidence 
has  carried  many  communities  down  below 
the  line  of  comfortable  living,  of  honorable 
and  dignified  social  order.  We  know  the 
story  of  the  decadent  community,  the  hope- 
less family,  the  degraded  men  and  women, 
and  we  know  that  all  of  this  Is  a  part  of  the 
great  social  and  Industrial  transformation  of 
our  times.  A  colossal  movement  of  history 
has  brought  a  crisis  to  many  and  many  a  com- 
munity, and  what  Is  the  Christian  Church  for 
except  to  help  humanity  —  to  help  all  men 
safely  through  great  crises.  The  Christian 
Church  should  leap  into  the  gulf  of  need  and 
rescue  the  Interests  involved  so  far  as  it  is 
able.  It  has  given  me  unspeakable  satisfac- 
tion as  a  Christian  minister  that  the  leaders 


STANDARDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  TEACHING       61 

of  this  new  social  development,  who  approach 
the  problem  from  the  economic  side,  have 
called  to  the  Church,  asking  it  to  assume  the 
responsibility,  summoning  it  to  leadership, 
declaring  that  the  Church  is  the  central 
agency,  and  that  It  must  come  to  the  rescue. 
Shall  we  not  heed  the  call,  and  shall  we  not 
broaden  our  conception  of  religious  teaching 
in  the  Church  and  in  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  and  In  all  our  agencies,  until 
we  diffuse  light  and  wisdom  adequate  to  the 
solution  of  these  problems  in  all  definite  and 
practical  ways  that  can  be  devised? 

—  Rev.  Wilhert  L.  Anderson,  D.  D. 


Ill 

THE  CHURCH  ITSELF 

The  Church,  being  a  ministering  Institu- 
tion, and,  as  Professor  FIske  says,  "  the  pri- 
mary agency  for  human  welfare,"  must 
stand  In  close  relation  to  every  other  institu- 
tion that  aids  In  community  building.  The 
cooperation  of  the  Church  with  other  exist- 
ing agencies  for  good  is  desirable  and  neces- 
sary everywhere,  but  nowhere  more  than  in 
the  country,  because  owing  to  the  lack  of  effi- 
cient leadership  in  the  country  and  the  char- 
acteristic slowness  of  country  people  to  move 
In  public  enterprises,  all  rural  organization  is 
apt  to  be  loose  and  ineffective.  A  country 
thurch,  therefore,  that  is  awake  to  its  oppor- 
tunities can  be  of  great  service  in  reviving 
and  helping  other  institutions  to  discharge 
their  functions. 

The  chief  business  of  the  Church  is,  of 

course,     to    spread    the    gospel    of    Christ 

throughout  the  world  and  to  help  men  live 

the  Christian  life.     Its  members  are  to  be 

62 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  63 

"  the  light  of  the  world,"  ''  the  salt  of  the 
earth."  The  Church  must  take  the  lead  in 
giving  life  the  right  trend.  It  must  furnish 
spiritual  truth,  hope  and  inspiration  through 
its  teaching  and  preaching. 

But  as  Christ  "  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister,"  so  has  the  Church  a 
ministering  function.  It  is  interested  in  serv- 
ing and  saving  the  body  and  mind  of  man  as 
well  as  the  soul. 

The  country  church  can  help  in  many  prac- 
tical ways  to  better  community  life.  Rural 
homes  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  com- 
munity making  or  breaking.  The  country 
church  can  cooperate  with  the  rural  home  by 
teaching  it  the  right  relations  of  family  life 
and  by  helping  to  preserve  these  relations. 
It  can  create  a  religious  atmosphere  in  the 
home  by  putting  in  the  hands  of  the  parents 
a  workable,  daily  Bible  study  and  prayer  pro- 
gram. Many  country  families  would  be 
glad  to  have  daily  devotions  but  do  not  know 
how  to  plan  them.  The  pastor  and  his  corps 
of  helpers  in  their  house-to-house  visitation 
jcan  hold  up  right  home  ideals  if  they  plan 
for   it.     The    country    church    can   help    to 


64  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

cultivate  In  the  rural  home  a  taste  for  good 
literature,  pictures  and  music  by  putting  the 
parents  In  touch  with  good  books,  magazines, 
tracts,  pictures,  etc.  Many  rural  people  do 
not  know  where  or  how  these  things  can  be 
had,  or  when  they  are  left  to  make  the  selec- 
tions themselves  they  do  not  discriminate  be- 
tween what  Is  trashy  and  what  good.  Much 
can  be  done  for  the  health  of  rural  homes 
through  the  rural  church,  by  occasional  ser- 
mons on  health,  hygiene  and  sanitation.  In 
the  visitation,  too,  suggestions  may  be  profi- 
tably made  along  these  lines.  In  the  absence 
of  a  Board  of  Health  in  the  country  the  rural 
church  may  save  Its  neighborhood  from  many 
a  serious  blunder  —  such  as  falling  to  take 
due  precautions  In  cases  of  contagious  dis- 
eases, or  bad  water,  or  milk  supply. 
Mothers'  clubs  or  child-welfare  societies  may 
have  their  meetings  In  the  church  parlors  — 
Instructed  by  the  pastor,  the  pastor's  wife  — 
a  physician  —  a  nurse  — -or  other  competent 
person.  No  end  of  good  may  come  to  coun- 
try homes  through  country  mothers  instructed 
in  this  way.  If  the  rural  church  building  Is 
a  model  of  neatness  and  cleanliness  —  and  if 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  65 

the  church  grounds  are  beautified  by  judicious 
planting  of  trees,  shrubs,  etc.,  the  homes  of 
the  parish  are  apt  to  follow  suit  and  the 
aesthetic  taste  will  be  thus  developed,  almost 
unconsciously.  Sermons  along  these  lines 
would  be  fruitful  of  great  good. 

Country  churches  are  too  little  interested 
In  the  welfare  of  the  rural  schools.  Chris- 
tians in  the  country  complain  bitterly  about 
their  poor  schools,  while  they  have  never 
done  a  thing  to  better  them.  Country  min- 
isters make  the  same  sorrowful  wail  and 
leave  the  country  to  seek  a  city  church,  where 
their  children  may  have  the  advantages  of 
good  schools,  without  ever  having  preached 
a  sermon  on  better  rural  schools  or  offered  a 
suggestion  to  a  rural  teacher  or  director. 
The  rural  church  might  well  be  the  home  of 
teachers'  institutes,  and  directors'  conventions. 
The  church  might  well  plan  great  popular 
meetings,  addressed  by  the  best  educators, 
for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  and  cultivating 
a  strong,  wholesome  sentiment.  Graduating 
exercises,  school  exhibitions  and  anniversaries 
could  be  held  with  great  profit  In  the  rural 
church. 


i(>  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

The  country  church  can  cooperate  with 
temperance,  civic,  and  other  public  welfare 
agencies  by  planning  popular  temperance  and 
patriotic  meetings.  Frequent  sermons  should 
be  preached  on  temperance,  patriotism  and 
good  citizenship.  Christian  men  in  the 
country  should  be  urged  to  attend  all  the  pri- 
maries and  elections,  and  to  vote  for  men  of 
principle  rather  than  for  party.  Citizens 
everywhere  should  be  urged  to  study  the  pub- 
lic issues  of  the  day  and  to  be  well  informed 
on  them.  The  country  church  may  well  put 
its  constituency  in  touch  with  literature  on 
this  subject.  There  is  no  more  effective  way 
to  cooperate  in  securing  good,  clean,  effec- 
tive government  —  local,  county,  state  or  na- 
tional. The  farmers  as  a  rule  do  not  know 
half  enough  about  civil  government  and  as  a 
result  of  this  they  have  not  a  sufficient  repre- 
sentation in  the  government  administration. 
The  Church  can  thus  cooperate  not  only  in 
securing  civic  righteousness,  but  when  occa- 
sion demands,  It  can  also  rebuke  political  cor- 
ruption and  all  sorts  of  evil  social  and  moral 
practices. 

The  country  church  can  cooperate  in  the 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  67 

social  uplift  of  the  rural  community  by  be- 
coming the  center  of  all  social  activities. 
There  can  be  no  better  place  from  which  the 
social  life  of  a  small  neighborhood  may 
emanate.  The  church  edifice  should  be  well 
equipped  for  work  of  this  kind.  Every  rural 
social  gathering  should  be  carefully  planned 
with  a  definite  purpose  in  view.  There  will 
be  no  monotony  if  this  rule  is  followed  and 
every  sociable  will  be  stimulating  and  help- 
ful. The  country  church  may  plan  suitable 
entertainments  where  there  is  need  for  such 
work.  A  good  lecture  course  may  be  con- 
ducted by  a  country  church  to  great  advan- 
tage. Along  with  this  indoor  social  and  rec- 
reational equipment  the  rural  church  may 
establish  a  recreation  park  —  provided  with 
baseball  diamonds,  tennis  courts,  croquet 
grounds,  race  course,  swings,  and  grand- 
stand —  where  a  whole  community  may  come 
for  a  good  time  on  Saturday  afternoons. 
Fourth  of  Julys,  field  days  and  play  festival 
days.  An  investment  in  an  enterprise  like 
this  will  pay  large  dividends.  It  is  far  and 
away  ahead  of  allowing  the  young  people  to 
drive   off   to   towns   and   public   amusement 


68  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

parks  and  pay  for  commercialized  amuse- 
ment that  often  has  the  sting  of  death  In  It. 

The  community  pride  and  the  friendships 
and  companionships  growing  up  In  and 
through  the  activities  of  the  country  com- 
munity play  park  are  sweet  and  lasting  and 
there  Is  wondrous  saving  power  In  them. 
How  many  country  preachers  have  ever 
preached  on  play?  The  country  people  have 
not  yet  rightly  learned  to  play  together. 
They  have  not  learned  the  value  of  play. 
The  young  farmer  goes  wrong,  not  while  he 
Is  following  the  plow,  but  after  the  day's 
work  Is  over  and  he  puts  on  his  best  clothes 
and  goes  out  for  his  sport.  Then  Is  when  he 
most  needs  a  place  to  go  where  he  can  have 
his  fun  and  not  be  contaminated. 

The  country  church  is,  of  course,  Interested 
in  better  farming.  It  can  cooperate  with 
the  farmer  In  securing  better  agricultural 
conditions  and  facilities,  by  Interpreting  to 
him  what  the  new  agriculture  is  and  what  It 
will  do  for  him.  The  country  minister 
should  be  In  close  touch  with  the  agricultural 
college  of  his  state  and  with  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  at  Washington,   D.   C.     He 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  69 

need  not  necessarily  be  a  master  of  the  sci- 
ence nor  need  he  attempt  to  teach  it.  But 
he  ought  to  be  informed  on  what  is  being 
done  in  the  Experiment  stations  and  he  ought 
to  know  about  the  many  helpful  bulletins, 
and  other  publications  that  are  issued  for 
farmers  and  how  to  get  them.  He  can  pave 
the  way  for  the  use  of  this  literature  in  his 
parish  by  referring  to  it  frequently  as  he  has 
opportunity.  He  can  read  and  digest  some 
of  the  most  helpful  of  these  farmers'  bulle- 
tins. He  may  find  good  sermon  illustra- 
tions here.  The  country  minister  may  in- 
spire boys'  corn  clubs  and  contests  and  farm- 
ers' institutes.  The  church  may  well  open  its 
doors  to  such  clubs  and  institutes  when  there 
is  no  other  suitable  place  to  hold  them.  One 
country  church,  through  its  Young  Men's 
Bible  Class,  has  started  a  library  which  is 
kept  in  the  lecture  room  of  the  church. 
Books  pertaining  to  agriculture  and  country 
life  are  being  put  in  this  country  life  library. 
The  country  church  loses  nothing  by  showing 
its  interest  in  the  farmers'  material  pros- 
perity. It  is  the  fairer  way.  The  country 
minister  is  fairer  when  he  shows  his  sympa- 


70  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

thy  for  the  farmer  In  his  struggle  for  a  living. 
And  It  will  not  make  him  a  whit  the  less  faith- 
ful and  efficient  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel. 
He  should  be  very  careful,  however,  In  do- 
ing this,  to  leave  the  Impression  that  better 
farming  is  to  mean  better  homes,  better 
schools  —  better  churches,  better  living  con- 
ditions—  and  not  "more  money  to  buy 
more  land  to  raise  more  corn  to  feed  more 
hogs  to  get  more  money." 

Certain  things  need  to  be  done  for  people 

—  must  be  done.  Every  country  community 
needs  certain  things  to  be  done  In  it  and  for 
It.  The  Church  —  being  "the  primary 
agency  for  human  welfare  " —  Is  ultimately 
responsible  for  supplying  human  needs.  For 
Instance,  If  there  Is  no  Board  of  Health  in 
a  country  community  —  active  or  otherwise 

—  the  church  must  look  after  the  health  of 
the  people  or  cause  it  to  be  done  —  until  such 
board  can  be  revived  or  established.  If 
the  country  school  Is  deficient,  the  country 
church  must  do  much  educational  work  until 
the  school  Is  Improved  —  that  the  Intellec- 
tual life  of  the  community  may  not  further 
degenerate. 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  71 

A  number  of  country  churches  today  are 
performing  service  that  properly  belongs  to 
the  home,  grange,  school,  or  other  Institu- 
tion because  these  Institutions  are  very  weak 
or  temporarily  out  of  commission.  The 
country  churches  that  are  rendering  this 
needed  service  are  the  ones  that  are  succeed- 
ing best. 

—  Rev.  M.  B.  McNutt, 

Discussion 

THE   CHURCH   KNOWN  BY  ITS   FRUITS 

The  church  that  realizes  Its  true  mission, 
and  at  the  same  time  can  go  about  that  mis- 
sion without  conveying  the  Idea  that  It  Is 
something  apart  from  the  community  Itself, 
will  be  the  most  efficient  church  In  the  coun- 
try community  or  In  any  other  community. 
There  Is  a  special  opportunity  for  the  coun- 
try church  to  Identify  Itself  with  the  com- 
munity, as  such,  that  the  city  church  very  of- 
ten does  not  have.  We  must  for  conven- 
ience divide  up  the  functions  In  any  community 
and  we  must  think  of  certain  functions  as  be- 
longing particularly  to    certain    institutions; 


72  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

but  the  church  must  realize  that  while  it  has 
a  specific  function,  It  Is  one  which  strikes  at 
the  very  life  of  men  and  the  very  life  of  the 
community  Itself.  If  the  church  can  remem- 
ber this,  It  need  not  fear  that  It  Is  going  to 
lower  Its  level  and  appear  to  the  community 
as  being  simply  one  among  several  organiza- 
tions of  equal  worth.  On  the  other  hand, 
If  the  church  goes  about  In  the  community 
all  the  time  announcing  the  fact,  proclaiming 
from  the  house-tops  that  It  Is  not  as  the 
other  institutions  of  men  —  If  It  Is  necessary 
for  the  church  to  proclaim  that,  I  think  we 
may  expect  that  the  church  will  lose  its  influ- 
ence and  It  ought  to  lose  it.  It  Is  not  the 
man  who  goes  about  saying  "  I  am  a  Chris- 
tian and  I  am  better  than  the  people  who  are 
not  Christians  and  I  am  to  have  special  privi- 
leges and  special  opportunities  because  I  am 
a  Christian  "  who  makes  the  real  Impression 
on  the  life  of  the  community  in  which  he  Is 
living.  It  Is  all  right  for  us  of  course  to 
testify  for  Christ,  to  bear  witness  to  the  fact 
that  we  do  believe  In  Him ;  but  after  all,  there 
is  a  sense  In  which  it  ought  to  be  unnecessary 
through   word   of   mouth,    because   the    life 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  73 

which  we  live  always  speaks  louder  than  the 
life  which  we  talk  about  and  the  former  ought 
to  be  sufficient  testimony  in  itself.  So  the 
church  which  realizes  that  it  has  a  specific 
task,  which  does  not  lose  its  main  purpose, 
but  which  at  the  same  time  can  escape  the 
danger  of  putting  itself  into  the  community 
as  something  apart  from  the  community,  will 
be  the  most  efficient  church. 

—  Dr.  William  H.  Allison. 

LEADERSHIP    IN    VARIED    ACTIVITIES 

The  personal  element  is  the  one  that  en- 
ters most  strongly  Into  the  question  of  lead- 
ership In  the  country  church.  It  so  happens 
that  I  have  the  honor  to  be  the  pastor  of  one 
of  the  three  largest  rural  churches  in  the 
Presbyterian  denomination.  Because  my 
people  find  It  easier  to  attend  church  in  the 
summer,  I  plan  to  take  my  vacation  in  the 
fall.  In  order  that  I  may  keep  young  I  have 
been  coaching  a  college  football  team  for  a 
couple  of  weeks. 

The  people  in  the  parish  to  which  I  was 
sent  appeared  to  have  lost  all  sense  of  the 
practice  of  the  presence  of  God.     Though 


74  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

the  county  was  famed  for  the  value  of  Its 
products,  though  the  people  were  rich,  yet 
they  had  to  be  brought  to  God.  Our  men's 
Bible  class  now  has  a  membership  of  ninety, 
with  an  average  attendance  of  perhaps  forty. 
We  have  organized  a  choral  society  with  forty 
or  more  members.  The  stereoptlcon  Is  a 
valuable  adjunct  to  the  work.  I  use  It  the 
third  Sunday  night  of  every  month.  It  Is  a 
mighty  educator  along  missionary  lines. 

Amid  great  opposition  we  have  placed  a 
fine  pipe  organ  In  the  church.  There  Is  no 
denominational  rivalry.  We  have  a  few 
Quaker  meeting  houses.  The  young  Quak- 
ers are  rapidly  being  taken  In  hand  by  my 
church.  HIcksIte  Quakers  make  fine  Pres- 
byterians. It  was  necessary  to  eliminate  cer- 
tain organizations  which  had  been  pestering 
the  life  of  the  church.  The  work  In  respect 
to  the  young  men  and  the  young  women  Is 
carried  on  along  constructive  lines.  But  It 
Is  not  by  studying  rural  sociology  alone  that 
you  can  solve  the  problems  of  the  rural 
church.     You  must  see  God  first  of  all. 

—  Rev.  Alexander  Thompson. 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  75 

NEED  FOR  RURAL  SURVEYS 

I  have  been  endeavoring  for  something 
Hke  a  year  past  to  obtain  a  method  that  will 
enable  one  to  get  accurate  Information  with 
regard  to  the  economic  and  social  life  of  the 
community.  Until  we  obtain  this  Informa- 
tion I  do  not  see  how  we  can  advance  very 
far  or  very  rapidly. 

I  desire  to  obtain  a  method  that  will  cover 
different  church  communities.  There  Is  the 
church  located  In  the  open  country,  the  church 
In  the  country  village,  which  Is  generally  over- 
churched,  or  a  combination  of  the  two.  The 
area  of  the  community  may  be  forty  or  fifty 
or  more  square  miles  with  various  local  cen- 
ters of  characteristic  Individuality.  How  are 
you  going  to  get  your  data  In  such  a  situation? 
I  should  like  to  get  some  Idea  how  we  are 
going  to  get  at  the  situation. 

—  Rev.  A.  S.  Clayton. 

SURVEYS    ALREADY   MADE 

The  Department  of  Church  and  Country 
Life  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  In  which  I  work,  Is  undertaking  the 


76  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

task  of  sociological  survey  of  country  com- 
munities with  the  utmost  care  and  thorough- 
ness. We  publish,  about  the  first  of  the  year, 
four  monographs  giving  the  results  of  such 
surveys  In  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Illinois  and 
Missouri,  and  we  have  further  work  In  Ten- 
nessee and  Kentucky  and  other  Southern 
States  now  In  process. 

We  have  also  worked  out  the  materials 
and  plans  for  community  study  and  we  shall 
be  glad  to  furnish  them  to  any  one  desiring 
them.  This  work  Is  all  done  In  such  a  way 
as  to  serve  workers  of  any  denomination. 
The  Department  Is  undertaking  precisely  the 
work  which  Professor  Earp  has  described  In 
a  section  of  Missouri,  where,  among  forty 
of  our  churches,  we  expect  to  apply  the  princi- 
ples already  stated. 

—  Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson. 

TOO   MANY   CHURCHES 

The  problem  of  the  church  In  the  small 
town,  where  there  are  more  churches  than 
one,  differs  from  that  of  the  distinctly  rural 
church.  The  difficulty  of  the  town  church  Is 
not    the    lack    of    wide-awake,    aggressive, 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  77 

modern,  efficient  leadership.  Men  of  this 
type  are  already  upon  the  field.  They  are 
thoroughly  in  touch  with  modern  methods, 
and  appreciate  the  real  needs  of  the  locality. 
They  are  eager,  and  ready  to  approach  the 
religious  problems  of  the  town  from  a  com- 
munity standpoint.  The  difficulty  is  one  of 
operation.  In  every  such  town  there  are 
from  one  to  five  churches  already  established. 
These  churches,  save  the  first,  have  not  been 
organized  primarily  because  a  careful  study 
of  the  community  needs  seemed  to  demand 
their  existence,  but  they  have  been  organized 
because  of  differences  of  opinion,  which  have 
occasioned  splits  in  churches  that  were  exist- 
ing, or  because  denominational  zeal  spied 
a  chance  to  get  a  foothold  for  a  particular 
church.  Once  upon  the  field,  they  must  be 
maintained,  even  though  the  real  religious 
efficiency  of  the  true  Church  of  God  be  made 
to  suffer  thereby. 

No  man  can  come  into  such  communities 
and  attempt  to  do  community-wide  religious 
work,  without  finding  himself  face  to  face 
with  conditions  which  make  his  work  impos- 
sible.    Until   the   emphasis  in   all   such   re- 


78  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

ligious  activity  is  changed  from  "  my  church  '* 
and  "  my  denomination,"  to  my  community, 
the  real  religious  problem  of  the  small  town 
cannot  be  successfully  solved. 

—  Rev.  A.  C.  JVyckof. 

CHURCH    UNION 

Suppose  that  In  Montgomery  County, 
Maryland,  or  in  some  county  In  Iowa,  thirty 
pastors  of  the  forty  churches  be  brought  to- 
gether, with  a  man  and  a  woman  from  each 
congregation,  making  a  total  of  no;  and 
that  these  be  formed  Into  a  country  church 
federation  for  the  purpose  of  allowing  any 
community  desiring  to  do  so  to  unify  its 
churches  through  this  federation,  which 
might  serve  —  as  the  business  man  would 
say  —  as  a  holding  body.  Let  the  local 
rural  union  church  through  this  body  have 
its  ecclesiastical  relation  to  the  other  church 
without  becoming  a  denomination.  I  find 
that,  In  many  communities,  churches  started 
as  union  churches  have  become  denomina- 
tional. Cannot  we  form  a  county  church 
federation  and  then  ask  the  state  bodies  or 
the  national  bodies  to  Invest  them  with  all 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  79 

ecclesiastical  authority  of  all  the  churches 
represented,  and  in  that  way  provide  that  the 
members  retain  their  denominational  relation- 
ship and  have  a  common  church  home  in  the 
community,  where  all  can  work?  I  am  sim- 
ply suggesting  this,  as  the  basis  of  a  plan  to 
overcome  the  present  difficulties  of  a  divided 
rural  church. 

—  Hon.  Willet  M.  Hays. 

MISTAKEN  RURAL  VIEWS  OF  THE  CITY 

When  I  hear  talk  about  rural  communities 
and  religious  work  in  rural  communities,  I 
find  myself  going  back  to  certain  plowed 
fields  away  out  in  Illinois  and  remembering 
exactly  how  the  mud  used  to  stick  to  my  shoes 
when  I  tramped  over  those  fields;  and  I  re- 
tail particularly  the  time  when  I  had  the 
honor  of  picking  up  what  was,  I  believe,  the 
first  so-called  corresponding  member  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  whom 
I  found  in  the  farthest  corner  of  a  far-off 
farm. 

My  work  just  now  is  in  the  city.  It  seems 
to  me  that  it  is  of  a  good  deal  of  importance 
that  we  should  take  definite  steps  to  help  the 


8o  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

city  and  the  country  understand  one  another 
and  particularly  to  help  the  country  boy  at 
his  best  to  understand  the  city  boy  at  his  best. 
The  country  boy  very  often  goes  to  town  with 
a  feeling  that  he  is  going  to  find  there  those 
who  are  interested  in  a  gay  life  or  those  who 
are  interested  in  making  money;  but  it  does 
not  ordinarily  occur  to  him  that  he  is  going 
to  find  those  who  have  high  spiritual  ideals. 
I  have  seen  country  boys  come  up  to 
town  and  find  there  a  lot  of  fellows,  gathered 
in  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
whose  ideals  were  higher  than  those  he  knew 
in  the  country.  I  believe  it  is  a  good  thing 
for  the  city  boys  in  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  to  get  out  once  in  a  while 
and  meet  those  country  boys  and  find  out 
what  the  open  air  idea  of  life  is.  This  move- 
ment in  both  its  educational  aspect  and  its  re- 
ligious aspect  is  to  my  mind  one  of  the  ex- 
traordinarily interesting  features  of  this  pres- 
ent time,  and  a  thing  that  the  men  of  the  cities 
have  reason  to  be  interested  in  as  much  as  the 
men  of  the  country. 

— Chancellor  Elmer  E.  Brown. 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  8z 

TRAINING  THE  CHILDREN 

Much  is  said  about  the  churches'  duty  to 
the  community.  It  is  just  as  natural  for 
every  Christian  to  feel  interest  in  his  com- 
munity as  it  is  for  him  to  pray.  There  never 
was  a  Christian  man  who  read  his  Bible 
enough  to  be  a  Sunday-school  teacher  that  did 
not  believe  in  his  soul  that  he  has  a  duty  to 
the  community.  We  need  no  enforcement  of 
that  matter.  But  how  shall  we  do  the  needed 
thing  for  that  community?  The  old- 
fashioned  way  was  to  wait  for  a  special  ex- 
perience called  conversion,  so  marked  that 
we  could  date  it.  But  we  are  coming  to  see 
that  the  training  of  children  has  more  im- 
portance than  we  used  to  think  it  had.  We 
are  learning  that  it  is  quite  necessary  and 
quite  possible  to  do  something  that  will  help 
in  large  measure  to  predetermine  the  time 
and  character  of  the  reception  our  children 
will  give  to  the  Gospel  when  they  come  to 
years  of  personal  decision.  The  environ- 
ment is  important. 

Another  matter  to  be  noted  is  that  we  have 
all  changed  our  notions  about  the  Kingdom 


82  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

of  God.  I  take  it  that  when  Jesus  told  us 
to  pray  "  Thy  Kingdom  come  in  earth,"  He 
knew  what  He  was  talking  about.  We  were 
brought  up  to  think  of  the  Kingdom  as  some- 
thing waiting  for  us  when  we  die.  But  I 
have  come,  and  others  who  have  not  already 
done  so  will  be  forced  to  come,  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Kingdom,  so  far  as  we  can 
do  anything  about  it,  is  to  be  actually  realized 
in  earth.  That  is,  kindness  and  equality  and 
mutual  helpfulness  in  a  spirit  of  love  consti- 
tutes the  Kingdom  here  and  now.  It  grows 
upon  me  that  we  may  safely  let  Heaven  take 
care  of  itself.  We  may  put  away  the  idea 
that  earth  is  simply  a  hatchery  for  young  fish 
and  they  are  to  be  removed  to  their  proper 
habitat  as  soon  as  they  can  swim  well.  We 
shall  be  nearer  the  truth  if  we  consider  the 
matter  in  the  light  of  a  field  of  corn.  The 
thing  to  do  in  June  is  to  hoe  the  corn.  That 
is  all  we  can  do.  It  is  not  time  for  harvests. 
When  the  harvest  comes  we  will  gather  it. 
Just  now  is  the  hoeing  time  for  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  It  is  not  completed  and  cannot  be 
now.  We  must  look  ahead  for  some  things 
that  earth  cannot  give  us.     But  we  are  to 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  83 

look  out  now  for  human  society.  We  are 
to  do  the  kind  and  wise  things  for  this  life, 
and  the  next  will  be  safe  enough. 

—  Dr.  Alvah  S.  Hobart. 

Review 

I  will  state  some  convictions  resulting  from 
experience  as  pastor  of  a  country  church  for 
twenty-three  years.  We  are  coming  to 
realize  that  the  problem  we  are  facing  Is  not 
only  a  country  church  problem,  It  Is  a  great 
religious  problem  of  which  that  Is  a  part. 
There  Is  a  problem  In  the  city  as  In  the  coun- 
try—  the  problem  of  Indifference  and  Irre- 
llglon  —  quite  as  acute  In  the  city  as  In  the 
country.  Churches  In  some  sections  of  the 
city  are  going  down  the  same  as  In  the  coun- 
try. Federation  Is  needed  In  some  Instances 
In  the  city  as  well  as  In  the  country. 

We  need  to  keep  In  mind  that  the  decline 
of  religious  Interest  Is  not  so  great  over  the 
whole  country  as  that  found  In  some  commu- 
nities. Often  this  Is  forgotten  In  speaking 
of  certain  sections.  They  are  only  a  small 
part.  We  are  In  need  of  more  Information. 
We  are  generalizing  without  sufficient  data. 


84  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Let  us  have  more  surveys   carefully  made. 

Some  readers,  seeking  specific  suggestions 
for  local  needs,  will  be  disappointed,  but  a 
new  view-point  is  the  great  need  in  the  coun- 
try. To  most  of  us  has  come  a  realization 
that  conditions  in  the  country  are  not  hope- 
less. Much  written  In  our  papers  and  maga- 
zines on  religious  life  in  the  country  districts 
contains  a  depressing  note.  This  is  unfor- 
tunate, for  the  impression  is  given  to  the 
faithful  workers  still  there  that  things  are 
going  from  bad  to  worse.  Rather  should  we 
inspire  confidence  and  hope  and  encourage 
such  workers  to  labor  for  the  improvement 
of  present  conditions  by  introducing  a  few 
new  agencies. 

In  the  country  the  view-point  of  coopera- 
tion Is  needed.  This  is  lacking  in  many  sec- 
tions. It  is  each  one  for  himself.  That  is 
due  In  part  to  isolation,  In  part  to  old  meth- 
ods. Here  the  minister  with  a  new  view- 
point can  exert  great  Influence.  I  speak 
from  experience.  By  visiting  the  schools  of 
all  the  districts  in  his  parish,  he  can  talk  with 
the  teacher  and  pupils,  learn  conditions  and 
plan  with  the  teacher  of  each  district  for  im- 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  85 

provement  In  that  district.  Together  the 
pastor  and  teacher  can  give  new  Ideals  to  the 
people. 

To  accomplish  this  calls  for  country  pastors 
with  a  vision.  It  has  been  said  that  few 
country  pastors  have  the  new  view-point.  If 
that  be  true,  what  Is  to  be  done  for  them? 
Two  things.  First,  the  young  men  In  prep- 
aration for  the  ministry  can  be  given  this 
view-point  in  the  seminary,  and  the  teachers 
there  can  equip  and  send  out  the  men  for  a 
broader  and  more  varied  service  to  the  com- 
munity. Secondly,  for  those  now  In  the  min- 
istry let  us  have  Institutes  modeled  after  the 
farmers'  institute,  or  the  institute  conducted 
by  the  Department  of  Education  to  benefit  the 
district  school  teachers,  or  those  conducted 
by  our  Sunday-school  associations  for  the 
awakening  of  the  Sunday-school  workers. 
If  the  pastors  of  all  denominations  could  be 
brought  together  and  experts  on  country 
church  work  could  conduct  such  an  institute 
once  a  year  in  each  county,  much  help  might 
be  given.  Not  methods,  but  the  new  view- 
point, must  be  made  prominent.  Hold  be- 
fore the  minds  of  these  pastors  the  great  work 


86  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

possible  for  them,  until  they  rise  up  and  go 
forth  with  fresh  courage.  Many  country 
pastors  are  discouraged  and  seek  change  be- 
cause they  have  not  grasped  the  possibilities 
for  service  in  their  fields. 

Again  we  must  lay  emphasis  on  the  Re- 
ligious motive.  Dean  Bailey  emphasizes  the 
fact  that  the  soil  is  holy,  and  the  farmer  is 
In  a  religious  work.  Is  this  not  true  also 
for  the  artisan  —  for  the  man  working  with 
his  plane?  Is  he  not  working  with  things 
holy  in  the  same  sense?  We  should  lead 
people  to  see  that  every  occupation  has  an 
ethical  and  religious  side  as  well  as  an  eco- 
nomic. 

All  our  discussion  will  not  help  us  or 
others,  until  we  realize,  first  of  all,  that  the 
leaders  must  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God. 
There  Is  one  who  baptizes  with  the  Spirit 
and  fire.     When  that  fire  comes  Into  the  soul 

—  the  fire  of  love  and  devotion  and  Intensity 

—  the  man  will  put  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm 
Into  methods  already  in  use. 

The  work  of  the  County  Department  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Is  to 
raise  up  leaders  In  country  districts,  and  great 


THE  CHURCH  ITSELF  87 

blessings  have  come  to  many  communities 
through  the  introduction  of  the  county  work. 
Not  the  least  blessing  has  been  the  new  vision 
given  to  many  a  pastor.  There  may  not  be 
as  much  glory  associated  with  the  county 
work  as  with  the  city  work,  but  it  is  just  as 
important  for  upbuilding  the  Kingdom  of  our 
Lord.  We  pastors  need  these  country  work- 
ers to  come  and  stand  by  us  and  work  with 
us.     May  such  workers  be  multiplied. 

Let  us  pray  more.  Both  country  and  city 
need  our  prayers.  The  message  of  the  hour 
is,  *'  The  harvest  truly  is  plenteous,  but  the 
laborers  are  few.  Pray  ye  therefore  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  will  send  forth 
laborers  into  his  harvest." 

Men  sometimes  lay  hands  on  and  ordain 
to  the  ministry  those  not  chosen  and  an- 
nointed  of  God.  Let  us  pray  that  every  one 
sent  out  be  annointed  with  God's  Spirit,  and 
then  the  work  will  prosper  in  every  field. 
—  Rev.  William  A.  Dumont. 


IV 

THE  SCHOOL 

This  Is  a  time  of  organization,  not  only 
In  our  great  financial  affairs,  but  we  seem 
to  be  on  the  eve,  through  arbitration  and 
other  plans,  of  bringing  about  some  kind  of 
a  peaceful  world-organization  that  will  do 
away  with  war.  And  the  time  has  come 
when  we  should  apply  these  principles.  In  the 
largest  sense,  to  a  general  get-together  move- 
ment, doing  away  with  our  denominational 
differences  so  that  we  can  unify  our  church 
life  In  the  open  country,  in  the  villages,  and 
In  the  cities.  We  are  weak  and  ridiculous 
In  the  eyes  of  the  world  because  we  do  not 
have  some  plan  of  getting  together.  If  I 
can  do  but  one  thing,  that  Is,  give  a  hope  that 
a  plan  made  by  somebody  at  some  time  In 
the  near  future  may  be  originated  that  will 
start  the  coordinating  of  our  forces,  the  be- 
littling of  our  differences  and  the  enlargement 
of  our  minds  for  a  more  unified  and  better 
organized   structure    for   doing   our   human 


THE  SCHOOL  89 

part  of  the  work  of  Christianity  —  If  I  can 
give  an  Impulse  along  that  line,  even  though 
I  make  no  suggestion  myself  that  is  practical, 
I  shall  have  accomplished  my  larger  purpose. 
Our  religious  schools,  our  denominational 
schools  as  we  call  them,  should  get  into  a 
position  to  give  religious  impulses  not  to  one 
student  In  a  long  course,  but  to  all  of  our 
youth  during  one  or  two  years  of  their  school 
life.  In  other  words  our  denominational 
schools,  whose  principal  object  In  the  hearts 
of  those  who  founded  them  was  to  prepare 
ministers  and  teachers  and  through  them 
build  up  character  in  the  whole  people,  should 
adhere  to  the  complete  purpose  of  their  found- 
ers. They  should  not  only  prepare  minis- 
terial leaders  but  they  should  In  some  way  re- 
enter the  field  to  produce  teachers,  not  allow- 
ing the  public  normal  schools  to  crowd  the 
church  schools  out  of  this  work.  As  some 
one  has  expressed  It,  we  should  use  these 
schools  to  put  in  the  heart  of  every  one  who 
is  to  be  a  teacher  In  our  public  schools,  or 
a  lay-leader  in  the  community,  religious 
Impulses  toward  altruistic  service  and  char- 
acter building.     I  have  been  a  student  in  two 


90  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

denominational  schools  and  in  one  state 
agricultural  college,  and  a  teacher  in  two  ag- 
ricultural colleges  and  I  know  there  is  oppor- 
tunity in  our  denominational  schools  to  exert 
a  great  power  along  character-building  lines. 
We  are  not  using  to  good  advantage  our 
opportunities.  We  ought  so  to  change  the 
plans  and  purposes  of  our  denominational 
schools  that  the  pupils  will  go  for  the  bulk 
of  their  informational  courses  to  the  public 
school  system,  and  to  the  church  school  for 
special  work  to  prepare  them  to  be  leaders 
and  teachers.  Pupils  should  come  from 
every  family,  for  say  one  year,  and  get  Into 
the  spirit  of  the  best  in  our  churches,  which 
may  be  centered  in  these  schools.  Their 
courses  for  preparing  teachers,  and  their 
courses  along  other  lines,  should  be  coordi- 
nated with  our  public  school  system  and  de- 
veloped to  prepare  teachers  for  all  schools. 
I  should  not  care  if  a  great  many  of  our  pub- 
lic normal  schools  became  In  larger  part  in- 
formational, trade,  agricultural,  and  com- 
mercial schools. 

We  need  coordination  In  our  denomina- 
tional work,  also,  because  we  have  Interna- 


THE  SCHOOL  91 

tlonal  opportunities  which  can  best  be  met  by 
a  unified  front.  I  believe  we  should  delegate 
to  every  substantial  organization  designed  to 
federate  the  churches  all  the  ecclesiastical 
powers  which  belong  to  all  the  denominations 
—  in  other  words,  all  the  power  that  comes 
to  us  from  Christ.  Why  divide  that  ecclesi- 
astical power  among  denominational  bodies? 

While  we  need  state  coordination  of  these 
religious  forces,  I  shall  refer  especially  to 
the  county  as  a  unit.  I  proposed  to  the 
county  of  Montgomery  adjoining  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  in  a  meeting  called  for 
that  purpose,  that  the  farmers  of  Maryland, 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and 
the  governmental  and  state  forces  interested 
in  country  life,  enter  upon  a  campaign  in  co- 
operation with  the  internal  forces  of  that 
county  and  make  of  it  a  model  "  country 
life  "  county.  We  have  already  begun  to  see 
visions  along  many  lines. 

In  order  to  use  figures  a  little  more  accur- 
ately in  taking  the  county  as  a  unit  for  reor- 
ganization, let  us  assume  that  a  certain  county 
is  in  the  center  of  Iowa,  with  its  approxi- 
mately  one   hundred   counties.     Let  us    as- 


92  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

sume  that  we  have  one  agricultural  col- 
lege In  the  state;  one  agricultural  high 
school  in  every  ten  counties,  or  ten  in  the 
state;  and  twenty  consolidated  and  village 
rural  schools  in  each  county,  or  2,000  in  the 
state. 

Then  let  the  consolidated  rural  school  in 
the  open  country,  patronized  by  one  or  two 
hundred  farm  families,  with  its  ten-acre 
school  farm  and  five-  or  six-room  building  and 
ample  meeting  hall  for  all  public  purposes, 
provide  a  community  store  and  other  facili- 
ties for  doing  cooperative  business  that  a 
farmer  cannot  do  for  himself,  a  teacher 
trained  to  teach  agriculture  as  a  principal, 
and  an  assistant  trained  to  teach  home  eco- 
nomics. Establish  a  ten-year  course,  the  first 
six  years'  work  to  be  taught  by  three  assist- 
ant teachers  partly  trained  in  a  denomina- 
tional college.  Thus,  speaking  broadly,  the 
principal  and  assistant  principal  will  have 
fifty  pupils,  thirty  pupils  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades,  and  twenty  pupils  in  the  first 
two  high  school  years.  These  two  teachers 
could  take  care  of  these  fifty  pupils  from  the 
seventh  to  the  tenth  grade  for  the  six  winter 


THE  SCHOOL  93 

months  and  spend  the  alternate  six  months 
most  profitably  in  going  about  teaching  them 
and  helping  their  parents  in  the  summer  time. 
Combined  with  the  winter  school,  these  sum- 
mer experiences,  which  take  the  teachers  into 
the  work  of  managing  the  farm,  the  farm 
home,  and  into  the  family  and  club  social  af- 
fairs, provide  educational  values  quite  equal 
to  those  of  the  six  months  in  the  winter. 
Then  put  beside  this  consolidated  school  an- 
other like  area  of  ten  acres  and  put  your 
church  and  your  minister's  home  there. 
Have  as  a  county  superintendent  some  man 
who  has  grown  up  in  this  consolidated  rural 
school  work,  has  been  a  student  there  also 
in  an  agricultural  high  school  and  in  a  re- 
ligious college.  Likewise,  an  assistant  county 
superintendent  similarly  trained  in  home 
economics,  and  for  leadership,  who  is  to  be 
superintendent  of  the  girls'  education  of  these 
twenty  communities. 

Add  to  the  county  service  a  county  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  worker,  a  county 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association 
worker,  and  also  a  county  demonstration 
farmer  to  work  with  the  mature  farmers  and 


94  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

even  a  county  home  efficiency  woman  to  work 
with  the  home  makers. 

The  leading  thought  I  wish  to  drive  home 
Is  that  county  life  has  begun  to  recenter  it- 
self about  these  larger  consolidated  rural 
school  centers,  and  that  here  are  the  vital 
points  for  centering  the  work  of  the  church. 
The  youth  will  here  become  In  his  school  life 
a  social  unit,  and  in  many  cases  an  economic 
and  a  political  unit.  The  churches  cannot 
afford  to  fail  to  fall  gradually  into  line,  for- 
get their  denominational  differences  and  settle 
down  as  unified  bodies  to  work  in  the  most 
vital  relation  to  the  educational,  recreational, 
social  and  even  the  economic  life  of  the  farm- 
ers in  these  newly  centered  communities. 
The  church  should  be  beside  the  school. 
The  county  is  a  splendid  unit  for  church 
federation.  But  the  state  and  national  lead- 
ers must  acquiesce  In  and  promote  county 
church  federation  and  local  church  union  of 
all  church  efforts.  There  Is  need  that  our 
theological  leaders  devise  some  procedure, 
some  kind  of  approved  county  federation, 
also  plans  for  consolidated  school  districts, 
union  of  churches  and  such  a  union  of  effort 


THE  SCHOOL  95 

that  we  can  have  a  well  paid  rural  ministry 
especially  trained  for  this  work. 

—  Hon.  Willet  M.Hays, 

Discussion 

PASTOR  AND  COUNTRY  SCHOOL 

There  are  at  least  four  things  which  the 
pastor  may  do  in  his  own  community  in  rela- 
tion to  the  school  problem. 

First,  he  can  visit  the  school,  get  its  at- 
mosphere, note  the  text-books,  the  studies 
taught  and  the  methods  used.  This  will  en- 
able him  to  influence  the  educational  atmos- 
phere of  his  community. 

Second,  he  can  infuse  into  education  re- 
ligious ideals  through  more  intelligent  preach- 
ing, writing  and  discussion  in  the  homes.  He 
can  make  the  community  see  that  their  edu- 
cational life  is  but  a  part  of  the  larger  re- 
ligious problem. 

Third,  he  can  do  all  in  his  power  to  give 
Christian  teachers  to  the  school.  I  think  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  teaching  religion 
in  the  public  school  begins  here.  We  should 
see    that    we    have    teachers   with    religious 


96  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Ideals,  who  have  a  reverent  attitude  toward 
all  truth. 

Fourth,  the  pastor  can  aid  in  creating  a 
demand  for  definite  moral  instruction  in  the 
public  schools.  I  do  not  believe  we  can  ever 
open  up  the  old  question  of  putting  the  Bible 
back  in  the  public  school,  to  be  used  for  any 
specific  sectarian  teaching.  There  is  a  way 
in  which  moral  instruction  and  the  finer  pass- 
ages in  the  Bible  can  be  used  in  the  school 
without  opening  up  the  old  controversy.  In 
this  way  the  finer  Christian  virtues  can  be  de- 
veloped and  the  growing  children  be  made 
to  see  that  their  religious  life  is  a  real  part 
of  their  educational  life. 

Fifth,  by  introducing  better  educational 
methods  into  the  Sunday-school  and  by  de- 
veloping outlying  district  schools  as  social 
and  religious  centers. 

Such  a  program  calls  for  great  intelli- 
gence, wisdom  and  self-sacrifice,  but  it  will 
more  than  repay  the  effort. 

—  Dr.  Robert  Wells  Veach. 

THE  LESSON  OF  THE  SEED 

I   am  very  glad  to  supplement  Assistant 


THE  SCHOOL  97 

Secretary  Hays'  views  upon  this  subject  of 
education  In  rural  districts  and  I  most  heartily 
endorse  the  proposition  which  he  has  made  to 
improve  rural  conditions  through  the  church 
and  through  the  public  school.  There  is  no 
field  that  is  so  productive  of  rich  results  as 
this  of  rural  education.  The  great  need  of 
the  country  today  is  the  teaching  of  natural 
sciences  more  in  our  public  schools  and  in  our 
Sunday-schools.  There  is  no  teaching  that  is 
so  rich  in  frultfulness  as  the  teaching  of  the 
parables  and  they  ought  to  be  taught  In  our 
public  schools  as  well  as  more  definitely  and 
clearly  In  our  Sunday-schools.  Take  the  les- 
son for  Instance  of  the  sowing  of  the  seed  — 
the  sowing  upon  good  ground  and  upon  the 
poor  ground.  See  the  wonderful  lesson  that 
could  be  made  from  that  parable  In  the 
course  —  the  thirty,  the  sixty,  the  hundred- 
fold increase.  Now  what  would  that  mean 
to  the  community  where  this  Is  carried  out 
scientifically  ?  What  does  that  mean  not  only 
spiritually  but  also  financially?  The  great 
need  of  our  rural  districts  today  is  financial 
support  in  church  work.  The  public  school 
Is,  of  course,  supported  by  the  state,  but  there 


98  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

is  a  lack  of  liberal  support  of  our  church 
work  in  many  rural  districts.  This  would 
bring  to  every  community  in  which  it  was 
taught  the  financial  support  which  the  church 
so  stands  in  need  of  today. 

—  George  T.  Powell. 


V 

THE  GRANGE 

I  have  no  right  to  speak  for  the  grange 
officially,  but  for  nearly  twenty  years  I  have 
been  a  member  and  to  some  degree  a  student 
of  grange  history,  work  and  purpose.  I  be- 
lieve In  It  absolutely  —  not  always  In  what 
It  does,  not  always  In  Its  spirit  as  shown  in 
local  bodies,  but  in  Its  essential  function  and 
purpose  and  meaning. 

There  are  two  methods  of  approach  to  the 
question  which  put  fully  Is  this:  "By  what 
practical  means  can  the  country  church  co- 
operate with  the  grange  In  rural  community 
building."  One  method  of  approach  Is  to 
discuss  details.  Here  Is  a  country  church  In 
a  community  where  there  Is  a  grange.  How 
may  they  work  together  for  the  up-bullding 
of  the  community?  The  other  method  of 
approach  Is  to  suggest  the  fundamental  func- 
tions of  the  church  and  of  the  grange.  If  we 
can  find  out  what  they  are,  and  with  that  as 
a  starting  point  outline  means  of  cooperation. 
99 


loo  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Unless  we  make  up  our  minds  that  the 
grange  has  a  fundamental  function,  I  do  not 
believe  that  we  can  really  do  much  in  the  way 
of  practical  cooperation  between  church  and 
grange.  If  the  grange  is  an  interloper  in 
the  community,  if  it  is  doing  the  work  that 
the  church  can  do,  then  the  best  thing  Is  to 
get  rid  of  the  grange.  My  own  philosophy 
of  country  life  has  a  very  significant  place  for 
the  grange  —  using  it  as  a  type  of  all  farm- 
ers' organizations  —  for  it  may  be  the  farm- 
ers' union  in  the  South  or  a  farmers'  club  in 
some  small  community.  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  church  can  ever  do  for  any  local 
community  or  for  the  country  as  a  whole  all 
of  the  things  that  need  to  be  done.  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Church  as  a  whole  or  In  its 
Individual  parts  can  or  should  do  the  major 
work  that  lies  before  the  grange  as  a  great 
organized  movement  on  behalf  of  rural  life. 

The  grange  in  many  communities  has  been 
shoved  off  from  its  main  purpose  and  has  be- 
come merely  a  social  club.  It  does  not  hold 
up  its  fundamental  task  of  education  and  Its 
fundamental  task  of  organizing  the  group 
power  on  behalf  of  Its  membership,  on  behalf 


THE  GRANGE  loi 

of  countrymen  as  a  whole,  and  on  behalf  of 
national  uplift  and  advancement.  But  If  the 
grange  Is  true  to  its  work  It  has  a  great  mis- 
sion. 

It  Is  very  difficult  to  assign  special  tasks  to 
the  church  and  other  special  tasks  to  the 
grange.  For  instance  —  We  have  a  church 
and  a  grange  in  a  given  community.  Shall 
one  hold  sociables  and  the  other  not?  Well, 
then,  if  both  shall  hold  sociables  what  shall 
be  the  distinction  In  the  two?  I  do  not  be- 
lieve we  can  answer  the  question.  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  a  question  to  be  answered.  The 
real  question  is,  what  is  the  principal  task  of 
the  church  on  the  one  side  and  what  is  the 
principal  task  of  the  grange  on  the  other  side. 
If  one  institution  is  not  doing  some  things 
that  are  obviously  needed  and  the  other  in- 
stitution can  do  these,  I  do  not  see  why  they 
may  not  be  done  by  the  institution  that 
recognizes  the  need  for  them,  although  they 
may  not,  on  first  thought,  apparently  belong 
to  it.  I  think  we  are  likely  to  get  mixed  up 
In  our  thinking  and  acting  on  this  question 
unless  we  keep  going  back  to  the  fundamen- 
tal work  that  Is  to  be  done  by  these  institu- 


I02  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

tlons.  Practically  this  means  doing  the  thing 
that  most  needs  doing.  But  all  the  time  let 
us  work  toward  making  the  institutions 
"  function,"  so  that  they  may  work  out  their 
tasks. 

Let  us  consider  these  four  practical,  imme- 
diate questions.  First,  shall  the  church  insti- 
tute a  grange  in  the  communities  where  there 
is  no  grange?  I  say  unhesitatingly  "Yes." 
Some  other  organization  may  be  better.  I 
am  not  a  protagonist  of  the  grange  as  the 
only  organization.  But  the  development  of 
some  type  of  farmers'  organization,  whose 
ichief  purpose  is  that  of  gathering  up  the  in- 
terests and  capacities  and  powers  of  the 
farming  class  on  behalf  of  class  advancement 
and  transmuting  those  same  powers  into 
terms  of  national  welfare,  is  one  of  the  fun- 
damental tasks  in  our  rural  life. 

Second,  How  shall  the  church  cooperate 
to  best  advantage  in  communities  where  the 
grange  is  efficient?  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
church  people  ought  to  be  leaders  in  the 
grange.  If  the  grange  is  true  to  its  purpose 
and  the  church  is  true  to  its  purpose  there 
will  not  be  very  much  over-lapping.     I  think 


THE  GRANGE  103 

the  grange  can  well  emphasize  the  farm  side, 
the  educational  side  and  the  economic  and 
political  questions.  Cooperation  consists  in 
the  people  of  the  community  being  interested 
in  both  because,  although  they  are  headed  in 
somewhat  different  directions,  they  expect  to 
reach  the  same  goal  finally. 

Third,  If  the  grange  is  inefficient  what  can 
the  church  do  to  meet  the  community  needs 
along  the  lines  that  should  be  supplied  by 
the  grange.  If  there  is  no  grange  and  if  it 
cannot  be  revived  by  the  people,  sometimes 
It  can  be  revived  by  the  minister.  If  that 
cannot  be  done  I  do  not  see  why,  as  has  been 
suggested,  the  church  may  not  do  many  things 
that  might  ordinarily  be  left  to  the  grange. 
There  are  country  ministers  and  country 
churches  that  have  settled  practical  questions 
—  better  roads,  telephone  lines,  educational 
work.  I  do  not  see  why  that  cannot  be  done 
by  the  church  simply  because  it  has  to  be  done 
and  the  church  Is  the  only  organization  that 
can  do  it.  But  I  do  not  believe  that  is  the 
ideal  method.  We  ought  to  try  to  bring  In 
the  organization  that  naturally  deals  with 
these  other  things  and  then  get  that  organi- 


I04  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

zatlon  headed  right.  Get  its  purpose  and 
spirit  right. 

Fourth,  Is  there  not  danger  of  rivalry  be- 
tween the  grange  and  the  church?  I  remem- 
ber ten  years  ago  reading  in  a  grange  paper 
an  article  containing  this,  "  Up  in  our  coun- 
try, the  grange  is  rapidly  taking  the  place  of 
the  church,  and  I  do  not  see  why  it  may  not 
take  the  place  of  the  church."  Anybody  who 
knows  about  the  grange  work  knows  that  it 
has  a  moral  purpose,  its  ritual  being  per- 
meated with  moral  and  religious  thought;  and 
a  man  cannot  be  a  member  of  a  grange  who 
is  at  all  sensitive  to  spiritual  things  without 
feeling  that  underlying  it  all  there  is  a  great 
spiritual  idea.  But  no  level-headed  person 
believes  that  the  grange  can  take  the  place  of 
the  church.  Sometimes  it  is  asserted  that 
there  is  danger  of  rivalry  when  the  grange 
holds  its  meetings  on  Saturday  night,  for 
people  do  not  feel  like  going  to  church  the 
next  day.  This  is  a  detail  and  people  ought 
to  be  wise  enough  and  kind  enough  and  Chris- 
tian enough  to  work  that  out. 

I  think  it  is  significant  that  the  phrase 
*'  rural  community  building  "  has  been  used 


THE  GRANGE  105 

In  this  topic  because  it  implies  that  the  grange, 
school,  church  and  farmers'  institute  have 
one  main  purpose,  which  is  to  build  up  the 
community.  Let  the  phrase  be  interpreted 
as  signifying  the  building  up  of  the  Kingdom 
in  the  community.  Hence  it  ought  to  mean 
that  the  grange,  the  farmers'  institute  and 
school  as  well  as  the  church  are  ministers  to 
the  Kingdom.  If  they  are  not,  then  they 
must  be  rejuvenated  or  else  put  out  of  busi- 
ness. They  are  all  concerned  in  one  big  job 
though  they  have  different  parts  in  the  job, 
just  as  different  contractors  take  different 
parts  in  the  erection  of  a  building. 

I  find  myself  thinking  along  the  lines  Sec- 
retary Hays  has  suggested,  that  sooner  or 
later  we  must  have,  not  a  new  organization, 
but  such  a  group,  such  a  federating,  if  you 
please,  such  a  coming  together,  such  a  co- 
operation that  we  shall  think  of  community 
building  as  a  problem,  and  then  attack  it  with 
all  the  forces  at  our  command.  These  forces 
are,  practically  speaking,  the  social  Institu- 
tions of  the  community.  They  will  over-lap 
to  some  degree  in  any  community.  But  In 
general  each  will  find  its  own  task  and  all 


io6  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

will  press  forward  together  because  they  have 
just  one  job. 

Yes,  the  church  and  the  grange  can  co- 
operate. Perhaps  more  than  In  any  other 
organizations,  the  leaders  of  the  church  and 
the  leaders  of  the  grange  can  forward  this 
movement  for  community  building  and  plan 
for  this  cooperative  or  federated  endeavor. 
I  do  not  know  yet  what  Is  to  be  the  nucelus 
around  which  this  cooperation  shall  take 
place.  The  various  communities  are  feeling 
their  way.  But  I  am  sure  It  has  got  to  come 
because  It  represents  the  central  religious 
Idea,  that  of  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom 
In  each  rural  community.  In  terms  of  the  very 
best  thought  and  life  of  our  time  and  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  eternal  laws  of  life. 

—  President  Kenyon  L.  Butterfield, 

Discussion 

ATTITUDE    OF    THE    CHURCH    TOWARD    THE 
GRANGE 

There  are  good  granges  and  bad  granges. 
The  church  has  a  responsibility  to  the  com- 
munity as  well  as  to  the  Individual.     If  there 


THE  GRANGE  rtyj 

are  wayward  granges  as  there  are  wayward 
boys,  isn't  there  a  responsibility  for  the 
church  to  look  after  the  wayward  grange; 
and  if  the  grange  itself,  back  in  its  origin  and 
in  the  minds  of  its  best  leaders,  is  working 
toward  a  high  purpose,  is  not  the  difficulty 
with  the  wayward  grange  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  not  true  to  its  ideals?  Doesn't 
this  then  in  a  way  suggest  the  method  for  the 
church?  Should  the  church  attack  the  way- 
ward grange  or  should  the  church  attempt 
to  bring  out  the  best  in  the  grange  by  appeal- 
ing to  its  best  principles?  I  fear  in  too  many 
cases,  as  soon  as  we  see  the  naughty  grange, 
we  proceed  to  chastise  it  if  we  can  possibly 
catch  it.  I  remember  a  very  wise  remark 
of  a  former  teacher  of  mine  who  is  now 
President  of  the  University  of  Rochester. 
"  Jesus  was  never  embarrassed  by  the  pres- 
ence of  goodness."  By  that  he  did  not  mean 
that  Jesus  never  felt  embarrassed  when  He 
came  in  the  presence  of  a  good  person  for 
fear  his  own  character  would  be  over- 
shadowed. What  he  did  mean  was  this  — 
that  when  Jesus  saw  goodness  in  a  man  he 
did  not  attempt  to   discount  that  goodness 


io8  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

but  recognized  It  as  goodness.  May  we  not 
simply  apply  this  In  the  attitude  of  the  min- 
isters and  churches  toward  the  grange? 
When  we  see  some  feature  of  goodness  In 
the  grange  or  some  other  Institution,  let  us 
not  distrust  that  goodness.  It  seems  to  me 
that  doing  that  —  distrusting  them  —  comes 
perilously  near  the  unpardonable  sin.  Let 
us  work  on  that  which  Is  best  and  develop 
out  of  that  a  healthy  life  in  every  aspect  of 
the  community. 

—  Dr.  William  H.  Allison. 

THE    farmer's    class-consciousness 

The  class-consciousness  of  the  farmer  and 
what  we  can  make  out  of  It  Is  a  subject  that 
the  country  minister  and  teacher  have  not 
thought  enough  about.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
American  Sociological  Society  I  heard  John 
R.  Commons  says  that  a  man  ought  not  to 
be  so  much  interested  In  the  way  he  might 
get  out  of  his  class  In  order  to  make  something 
of  himself  as  in  the  way  to  make  something 
of  himself  within  his  class.  I  think  this 
principle  applies  to  the  rural  church  problem, 
to  the  grange  and  to  all  organizations  in  the 


THE  GRANGE  109 

rural  districts.  In  spite  of  all  the  jokes  and 
jibes  on  the  farmer,  it  is  possible  to  find  a 
farmer,  even  today,  famed  for  his  whiskers, 
proud  of  the  fact  that  he  is  a  farmer.  The 
time  is  coming  when,  by  intelligent  leadership 
in  the  working  out  of  this  problem,  we  are 
going  to  have  young  men  proud  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  rural  pastors.  I  know  some 
that  I  should  not  be  proud  of,  and  no  one 
else  would  be. 

Another  matter  that  is  of  interest  here  is 
the  financing  of  any  proposition  of  successful 
cooperation  and  achievement  in  the  country 
districts.  It  is  sometimes  urged  that  the 
farmer  is  not  really  generous  about  paying 
for  things.  I  have  been  a  book  agent  and 
my  field  was  in  the  rural  district.  I  found 
that  I  could  always  collect  on  a  book  that 
a  farmer  said  he  would  take,  and  my  job  was 
to  get  him  to  say  he  would  take  it.  Now  I 
believe  that  the  moment  we  make  the  rural 
farmer,  a  farmer  who  is  still  on  the  job  in  the 
country^  who  has  not  moved  to  the  village, 
see  that  this  institution  we  are  establishing 
in  the  country  has  value,  he  will  support  it. 
The  difficulty  is  in  making  it  go  until  he  sees 


no  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

it.  I  make  this  suggestion  to  those  who  have 
control  of  the  home  missionary  boards  and 
the  distribution  of  their  funds.  I  should  like 
to  see  at  least  four  or  five  experiments  made 
by  the  home  missionary  board  in  every  de- 
nomination. These  would  involve  financing 
a  proposition  in  a  rural  district  that  has  never 
yet  been  successfully  worked,  with  a  man  at 
the  head  who  sees  the  broader  definition  of 
the  Kingdom  and  its  possibihties  in  that  com- 
munity. He  should  be  supported  until  he 
can  prove  to  that  community  that  what  he 
has  is  of  value;  then  they  will  support  it. 
Now  I  know  city  churches  or  community 
churches  where  you  have  inter-denomina- 
tional cleavage  and  too  often  it  is  in  these 
over-churched  communities  that  home  mission 
funds  are  spent  rather  than  in  the  under- 
churched  town  or  village.  By  working  in 
the  other  direction,  the  church  might  even 
take  the  lead  in  developing  a  farmer  class- 
consciousness  that  would  make  rural  church- 
members  put  off  their  denominational  preju- 
dices and  get  together. 

I  am  very  glad  for  all  the  expressions  of 
what  we  call  a  broader  definition  of  the  King- 


THE  GRANGE  iii 

dom  of  God,  and  I  believe  the  time  Is  now 
here  when  any  man  or  woman  who  Is  doing 
a  necessary  part  of  the  world's  work  —  a 
part  that  has  to  do  with  the  happiness  and 
health  of  people  —  ought  to  be  recognized 
and  Is  being  recognized  as  a  part  of  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  this 
world. —  Professor  Edwin  L.  Earp. 

A  GRANGE  TENT 

Recently  I  was  called  to  a  purely  rural 
church  to  lecture.  When  we  climbed  Into 
the  gallery  to  put  up  the  screen  I  found  a  lot 
of  tent  poles.  I  asked  what  they  meant. 
The  pastor  of  the  church  said:  "They  be- 
long to  our  big  tent.  We  put  It  up  outside 
for  the  entertainments  which  our  grange 
gives.  We  have  given  some  very  elaborate 
plays.  Once  we  had  to  bring  them  Into  the 
church  when  there  was  a  heavy  storm."  The 
solution  which  has  been  worked  out  in  that 
particular  church  makes  the  church  and 
grange  apparently  In  complete  accord  with 
each  other.  The  secret  of  this  success  is  the 
fact  that  the  daughter  of  the  pastor  is  very 
successful  as  an  organizer.     She  is  the  lee- 


112  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

turer  in  the  grange.  The  pastor's  family  is 
the  unifying  influence  between  the  two  organi- 
zations. The  next  morning  the  wife  of  the 
pastor  took  me  to  the  railroad  station. 
When  she  turned  back  she  called  to  the  agent, 
"Is  the  library  here?"  I  asked  what  she 
meant  and  she  said:  "  It  is  the  library  for  our 
grange.  It  comes  to  my  daughter.  She 
takes  charge  of  it."  This  is  the  way  one 
New  Jersey  church  and  grange  are  cooperat- 
ing.—  Rev.  William  Sheddan, 


VI 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FARMERS' 
INSTITUTE 

The  Christian  Church  was  established  to 
promote  Christianity  in  the  world,  to  intro- 
duce into  the  hearts  of  men  personal  re- 
ligion. In  doing  this  it  was  to  show,  first, 
that  man  is  a  sinner;  that  the  end  of  sin  is 
eternal  death;  and  that  salvation  from  sin  is 
by  Jesus  Christ.  This  was  to  be  its  great 
mission.  In  carrying  It  out.  It  was  to  utilize 
the  revelation  and  teaching  found  In  the  holy 
Scriptures.  It  now  points,  for  examples  of 
the  efficacy  of  the  remedies  it  offers,  to  re- 
formed men  and  women;  and  for  the  effect 
of  Its  teaching  upon  society,  to  the  care  of 
the  destitute,  the  restraint  of  evil,  and  the 
good  order  and  general  prosperity  of  the 
people  wherever  the  Church  has  been  estab- 
lished. 

The  Church,  as  an  organization,  is  commis- 
sioned In  addition  to  Its  teaching,  to  look  after 
113 


114  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

the  poor,  the  wretched,  the  helpless,  the  sick, 
the  unfortunate  and  the  sinning.  It  is  to 
bind  up  broken  hearts,  to  comfort  those  who 
mourn,  encourage  the  weak,  befriend  the 
widow  and  the  fatherless,  visit  the  prisoner 
and  warn  those  who  are  unruly  and  such  as 
are  living  in  sin.  Through  these  duties 
faithfully  taught  and  performed  in  and  by 
the  Church,  it  is  expected  that  those  who  com- 
pose its  membership  will,  as  individuals,  as 
merchants,  farmers,  lawyers,  physicians,  me- 
chanics, and  day  laborers,  exert  their  influ- 
ence for  the  improvement  of  the  schools,  for 
the  suppression  of  traffic  in  rum,  for  the  de- 
vising of  better  methods  of  living;  and  that 
they  will  consider  the  health,  the  wage  and 
the  general  welfare  and  happiness  of  their 
neighbors.  If  these  individual  Christians 
find  that  they  can  do  more  efficient  work  by 
association,  then  they  form  societies  and  work 
through  them  as  in  the  organization  of  so- 
cieties for  the  promotion  of  temperance,  for 
the  betterment  of  the  poor,  for  the  relief  of 
the  insane,  for  the  erection  of  hospitals,  in- 
firmaries and  homes  for  the  aged  and  unfor- 
tunate, and  similar  projects,  as  farmers'  in- 
stitutes, granges  and  other  neighborhood  or- 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  115 

ganlzatlons.  They  will  form  these  organiza- 
tions outside  of  the  church  and  conduct  them 
not  as  church  functions,  but  as  the  outgrowth 
of  the  teaching  that  the  church  has  given  and 
of  a  sense  of  duty  to  their  fellows  that  the 
church  has  implanted  in  their  individual 
hearts. 

It  was  not  originally  the  province  of  the 
Christian  Church,  as  an  organization,  to 
show  men  how  to  make  money,  how  to  attain 
skill  in  the  performance  of  manual  opera- 
tions, how  to  succeed  in  politics,  to  promote 
games,  or  to  finance  business  undertakings. 
Its  work  was  spiritual;  it  dealt  only  with  es- 
sentials, with  the  springs  of  life  in  the  indi- 
vidual. 

Component  Parts  of  the  Church 

Many  of  those  who  speak  of  the  church 
doing  this  or  that,  when  questioned,  admit 
that  they  mean  not  the  corporation  as  a  body, 
but  the  preacher.  Frequently  where  the 
term  church  is  used  the  true  meaning  is  had 
when  the  word  "  preacher  "  is  substituted. 
To  discuss  the  subject  intelligently  an  analy- 
sis, therefore,  seems  to  be  necessary  in  order 
to  avoid  confusion  of  terms. 


1x6  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

A  local  church  is  a  composite,  made 
up  of  (a)  the  Pastor;  (b)  the  Session,  or 
Ecclesiastical  Court;  (c)  the  Trustees,  or 
Business  Board;  (d)  the  Missionary  and 
similar  Societies;  (e)  the  Congregation  or 
lay  members;  and  (f)  the  Church  as  a  De- 
nomination or  distinct  body  of  believers. 

Functions  of  These  Different  Elements 

( I )  The  Pastor.  He  is  the  spiritual  ex- 
pert of  the  church,  charged  with  the  teaching 
of  spiritual  and  moral  truth.  His  duties  In 
this  direction  are  already  more  numerous 
and  onerous  than  he  can  fully  and  satisfac- 
torily perform.  The  fact  that  within 
the  bounds  of  the  parish  of  every  coun- 
try pastor  there  are  Irreligious  Individuals 
and  families  to  be  sought  out  and 
saved,  as  well  as  members  of  the  church 
needing  special  attention  and  spiritual  guid- 
ance. Is  proof  that  work  In  this  direction  is 
not  completed.  It  is  a  serious  question, 
therefore,  whether  the  pastor's  efforts  along 
these  lines  should  be  relaxed  before  those 
resident  In  his  community  are  brought  within 
the  pale  of  the  Christian  Church  and  before 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  xij 

the  members  of  his  congregation  are  brought 
to  a  fair  realization  of  their  responsibility 
for  the  spiritual  enlightenment  of  mankind. 
There  is  no  other  man  in  the  community  spe- 
cially charged  or  fitted  by  education  and  ex- 
perience for  doing  the  pastor's  work  as  a 
spiritual  teacher  and  adviser.  Consequently, 
if  his  efforts  are  impeded  or  suspended  in 
these  respects,  the  church  life  and  the  com- 
munity life  will  correspondingly  suffer.  This 
does  not  mean  that  he  shall  fail  to  encourage 
proper  social  activities  in  his  community,  or 
to  perform  other  public  service,  either  along 
farmers'  institute  or  similar  lines,  but  it  does 
mean  that  he  shall  not  devote  time  to  these 
matters  to  the  neglect  of  the  other,  and  that 
in  this  country,  at  least,  it  is  not  his  function 
to  teach  the  growing  of  corn  or  potatoes  or 
pigs.  Other  agents  better  equipped  for  giv- 
ing this  kind  of  instruction  exist  and  are 
available. 

This  may  be  regarded  by  some  more  en- 
thusiastic promoter  of  the  country  life  move- 
ment as  being  a  narrow  view  of  the  coun- 
try pastor's  sphere.  It  is  true  that  it  nar- 
rows his  activities  and  responsibility  mainly 


n8  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

and  first  and  foremost  to  the  lines  of  work  for 
which  he  has  been  divinely  chosen  as  well  as 
specifically  called  by  the  congregation  to 
whom  he  ministers. 

One  of  the  greatest  dangers  that  now 
threatens  country  people  through  this  coun- 
try life  or  extension  movement  is  that  it  may 
affect  well-established  and  valuable  institu- 
tions injuriously  by  distracting  attention  from 
their  importance  in  community  life  to  these 
newer  features  now  being  introduced.  One 
danger  that  is  now  apparent  in  enlisting  the 
country  church  in  favor  of  this  movement  to 
the  extent  that  its  promoters  desire  is  that  the 
fundamental  work  for  which  the  church  ex- 
ists may  be  minimized  in  the  presence  of  these 
more  sensational  measures  so  popular  and 
promising  such  great  results.  If  this  hap- 
pens, the  country  pastor  will  lose  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  obligations  and  opportunities 
of  his  sacred  calling  to  serve  the  congrega- 
tion to  which  he  ministers  and  remit  his 
efforts  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  in  his  de- 
votion to  organizations  and  enterprises  most 
valuable  and  useful  to  the  community,  but 
with  the  direction  or  success  of  which  he, 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  119 

as  a  minister  of  the  gosepl,  is  not  charged. 

If  a  practicing  physician,  for  example, 
were  to  leave  his  patients  to  suffer  while  he 
engaged  in  some  other  public  service,  no  mat- 
ter how  important  or  useful  in  itself,  he  would 
be  criticised,  and  justly,  for  having  neglected 
his  own  proper  function  and  for  having  as- 
sumed obligations  incompatible  with  proper 
attention  to  those  for  which  he  was  first  of 
all  responsible.  If  he  were  to  do  this  habit- 
ually the  time  would  soon  arrive  when  his  pa- 
tients would  refuse  his  service  and  seek  some 
other  physician  more  devoted  to  their  inter- 
ests. 

In  both  of  these  cases,  however,  that  of 
the  minister  and  that  of  the  physician,  there 
should  be  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the 
community  interest  and  a  willingness  to  assist 
when  this  assistance  can  be  given  without  in- 
jury to  the  particular  set  of  duties  for  which 
the  individual  first  of  all  and  above  all  is  re- 
sponsible. It  is  to  call  attention  to  this  limi- 
tation that  I  have  expanded  this  explanation 
to  meet  possible  criticism  that  may  arise  re- 
specting my  definition  of  the  country  pas- 
tor's sphere  of  work. 


lao  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

(2)  The  Session,  or  ecclesiastical  court 
of  the  church.  This  Is  made  up,  In  the  Pres- 
byterian denomination,  of  Its  eldership,  with 
the  pastor,  and  Is  charged  with  the  oversight 
of  the  congregation  In  spiritual  matters. 
The  Individual  members  of  the  session  or 
other  body  having  control  of  these  affairs,  are 
the  agents  of  the  pastor  In  carrying  out  his 
plans  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  the  membership.  Their  functions 
as  a  session  are  wholly  spiritual,  moral  and 
disciplinary. 

(3)  The  Trustees.  The  trustees  have 
charge  of  the  secular  business  of  the  church, 
so  far  as  Its  functions  are  secular.  They  rep- 
resent the  corporation  In  Its  legal  aspect  with 
relation  to  matters  affecting  Its  property  hold- 
ings and  rights  and  they  are  limited  In  their 
activities  by  the  charter  under  which  the  or- 
ganization as  a  religious  society  operates. 

(4)  The  Missionary  Society  and  other 
societies.  These  Include  the  Sabbath-school, 
and  various  young  people's  societies,  which  are 
both  religious  and  social  and  are  not  organ- 
ised for  business  purposes  or  for  the  promo- 
tion of  secular  enterprises.  Their  service 
both  In  the  congregation  and  as  it  affects  the 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  izi 

work  done  at  large  is  for  the  spiritual  and 
moral  uplift  rather  than  the  financial  better- 
ment of  communities. 

(5)  The  Membership  of  the  congrega- 
tion. As  a  body  the  congregation  is 
religious,  although  the  functions  of  the  mem- 
bers, as  individuals,  are  both  religious,  and 
secular. 

(6)  The  Church  as  a  denomination. 
This  is  a  corporate  body  organized 
for  conducting  religious  services.  It  is  not 
organized  for  trade,  for  politics  or  other 
secular  pursuits. 

Cooperation  with  farmers^  institutes. 

If  this  analysis  and  statement  of  function 
is  correct  or  even  approximately  so,  it  would 
then  seem  that  cooperation  of  general  char- 
acter by  the  church  with  the  farmers'  insti- 
tute is  confined  chiefly  to  that  of  and  by  the 
members  as  individuals  rather  than  that  by 
the  church  as  an  organization.  Practically, 
this  cooperation  has  already  been  effected  in 
most  communities  of  the  United  States.  For 
the  year  ended  June  30,  191 1,  3,400,000 
persons  came  together  in  farmers'  institute 
assemblies  to  consider  methods  for  rural  bet- 


122  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

terment  and  were  addressed  by  over  iioo 
expert  teachers  In  subjects  relating  to  agri- 
culture, domestic  science  and  rural  improve- 
ment. The  institute,  embracing  as  it  does 
in  its  membership  men  and  women  of  all  de- 
nominations and  political  beliefs,  is  therefore 
essentially  the  Church  at  work  In  a  practical 
way  for  the  betterment  of  rural  condi- 
tions. The  same  is  true  of  other  rural  or- 
ganizations of  which  the  farmers'  Institute  is 
a  type. 

When,  therefore,  the  entire  rural  popula- 
tion is  either  associated  In  Institute  work  or 
in  horticultural  societies,  the  grange,  the  far- 
mers' union,  or  other  rural  organization  re- 
lating to  agriculture  and  country  life,  we 
shall  have  the  cooperation  for  the  uplift  of 
the  community  that  we  desire  and  the  best 
that  has  hitherto  been  devised.  These  local 
societies  are  directed  by  specialists  thor- 
oughly equipped  for  accomplishing  the 
things  that  are  contemplated,  and  they  pro- 
vide therefore  a  most  effective  organization 
and  method  for  rural  betterment.  They  pro- 
vide a  form  of  harmonious  cooperation  be- 
tween the  church  and  other  rural  forces  thor- 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  123 

oughly  efficient  and  without  any  member  be- 
ing required  to  first  sink  his  denominational 
preference  or  political  belief.  They  should, 
therefore,  have  the  encouragement  and  sup- 
port of  the  church  to  the  extent  of  its  limita- 
tions. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  a  church  as  a  church 
to  run  a  farm,  or  an  orchard,  or  a  stock  barn 
in  order  to  benefit  rural  people  and  improve 
agriculture,  or  to  provide  a  swimming  pool 
or  a  gymnasium  for  the  young  people  of  the 
community.  Such  service  when  needed  can 
best  be  and  v/ill  be  performed  by  a  commun- 
ity organization  created  specially  for  the 
purpose  and  It  will  have  the  cooperation  of 
members  from  every  church  as  well  as  of  in- 
terested persons  outside.  Let  the  church 
spire  stand  for  spiritual  life  and  its  better- 
ment. If  this  is  faithfully  attended  to,  the 
members  themselves  will  see  that  these  other 
things  so  needful  to  a  well-rounded  rural  life 
are  supplied. 

While  it  is  the  bounden  duty  and  ought  to 
be  expected  of  the  church  as  an  organization 
and  of  its  officers  as  officers  to  attend  first  of 
all  faithfully  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  af- 


124  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

fairs  of  the  community,  at  the  same  time  it 
Is  Incumbent  upon  the  Individual  members, 
acting  either  as  individuals  or  associated  with 
each  other  in  organizations  of  secular  char- 
acter, to  promote  the  particular  business  aims 
of  interest  to  the  community  and  engage  ac- 
tively in  the  work  of  Improving  the  social 
conditions. 

Sphere  of  the  Pastor^s  Influence 

The  pastor's  opportunity  for  influencing 
community  betterment  lies  mainly  in  his  faith- 
ful teaching  of  Scripture  truth;  In  his  visit- 
ing throughout  the  community,  not  as  an  agri- 
cultural expert,  but  as  a  religious  teacher  and 
spiritual  adviser,  influencing  young  and  old 
to  the  practice  of  good  morals  and  fair  deal- 
ing; and  in  forming,  through  his  teaching 
and  by  his  personal  life  and  example,  ideals 
in  Christian  character  to  be  emulated  by  those 
among  whom  he  lives.  If  this  is  done,  then 
the  individual  members  of  the  church  as 
they  participate  in  the  secular  affairs  of  life 
will  introduce  into  the  associations  that  they 
join  these  same  principles  of  morality  and 
high  Ideals  and  thus  bring  to  bear  upon  those 
who  are  not  members  of  any  Christian  church 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  125 

the  influence  of  these  churches,  thereby  cre- 
ating and  extending  a  moral  sentiment 
throughout  the  community  that  shall  promote 
thrift  and  stand  for  good  order  and  the 
proper  observance  of  the  moral  and  religious 
principles  and  practices  upon  which  civilized 
society  is  founded.  In  the  rural  districts 
most  people  are  already  affiliated  more  or 
less  closely  with  some  religious  society  or  de- 
nomination. What  they  need  is  spiritual 
quickening;  they  need  to  be  brought  to  feel 
more  deeply  their  obligation  to  God  and  to 
their  fellow  men,  to  have  their  sympathies 
for  and  their  impulses  to  aid  the  unfortunate 
aroused.  The  faithful  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel will  accomplish  this  and  out  of  this  the 
other  benefits  enumerated  will  naturally  flow. 

Cooperation  by  the  Church  as  a  Body 

The  church,  therefore,  as  a  body,  can  best 
cooperate  in  rural  community  building 
through  and  along  moral,  social  and  spiritual 
lines,  leaving  the  teaching  of  technical  busi- 
ness operations  to  the  individual  membership 
and  to  specialists  equipped  for  the  purpose 
and  having  expert  knowledge  of  the  methods 
best  adapted  to  produce  results  desired. 


126  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

Methods  of  Cooperation 

There  are,  however,  forms  of  cooperation 
among  and  by  rural  churches  for  the  better- 
ment of  rural  conditions  that  are  proper, 
practicable  and  effective.  A  few  of  these  are 
here  suggested  and  others  will  grow  out  of 
the  work  as  It  proceeds. 

(a)  The  Minister's  Weekly  or  Monthly 
Meeting.  This  Is  a  coming  together 
statedly  of  the  pastors  of  all  the 
churches  in  the  community  for  conference  re- 
specting the  community  welfare.  Such  as- 
sociation begets  fraternal  feeling  and  does 
much  to  break  down  the  prejudice  that  once 
existed  among  denominations.  It  tends  to 
unite  the  churches  In  the  teaching  of  timely 
truth  and  in  Influencing  Christian  people  to 
undertake  the  correcting  of  abuses  that 
threaten  the  community  life.  The  ministers' 
meeting  Is  a  most  potent  agency  for  rural  bet- 
terment as  well  as  for  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  the  membership  of  the  respective 
churches. 

In  a  number  of  localities  meetings  of  min- 
isters, such  as  have  been  outlined,  are  now 
held  for  consultation  respecting  the  Interests 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  127 

of  their  several  congregations.  Where- 
ever  this  plan  has  been  tried  It  has, 
I  think,  been  generally  satisfactory. 
The  plan  now  proposed  Is  to  extend 
this  Idea  to  all  rural  communities.  It 
is  believed  that  If  this  educated  body  of 
men  familiar  with  the  conditions  In  their  re- 
spective districts  and  thoroughly  Interested  In 
rural  betterment  were  to  meet  statedly  for 
the  discussion  of  the  problems  that  confront 
them  as  rural  pastors,  many  of  these  problems 
would  speedily  be  solved.  In  any  case  the 
consideration  of  such  matters  by  trained,  con- 
scientious scholars  living  in  daily  contact  with 
rural  people  Is  not  only  practicable  but  prom- 
ises as  much  for  the  ultimate  solution  of  the 
question  of  rural  betterment  as  any  other  yet 
proposed.  It  Is  utilizing  the  highest  intelli- 
gence and  the  most  unselfish  body  of  men 
that  the  community  has  in  studying  its  prob- 
lems and  It  combines  that  intelligence  in  well 
digested  recommendations  to  be  followed  by 
all. 

If  such  a  movement  can  be  started  and 
rural  ministers  of  all  denominations  In  all  lo- 
calities can  be  brought  together  statedly  for 


128  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

conference,  as  suggested,  a  great  Impulse  will 
undoubtedly  be  given  to  the  country  life  prop- 
aganda and  It  will  have  the  advantage  of 
being  Intelligently  and  harmoniously  directed. 
I  believe  that  the  plan  Is  entirely  practicable. 
At  all  events.  If  country  ministers,  who  are 
of  all  men  most  Interested  In  rural  develop- 
ment, are  unwilling  to  unite  for  its  better- 
ment. It  is  not  likely  that  their  parishioners 
will  do  so.  It  Is,  therefore,  imperative  that 
the  ministers  lead  the  way.  When  they 
make  the  effort  and  seriously  take  up  the 
work,  then  we  may  hope  to  see  their  congre- 
gations following  their  example. 

No  better  body  exists  for  getting  these 
ministerial  bodies  organized  and  at  work 
than  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion. Its  undenominational  character  and  its 
energetic  and  widely  distributed  force  of  ca- 
pable men  fit  It  peculiarly  for  undertaking  this 
work  and  carrying  it  on  to  ultimate  success. 

(b)  Lay  Leader's  Meeting.  After 
the  ministers'  meeting  has  become  established 
a  further  step  in  cooperation  may  be  taken 
with  promise  of  success.  It  consists  in  hold- 
ing similar  stated  meetings  by  the  eldership 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  129 

or  official  lay  leaders  of  the  churches. 
These  meetings  would  bring  together  a  body 
of  men  who  are  officially  and  individually  in- 
terested in  the  promotion  of  the  moral  and 
religious  life  of  the  community.  Their 
meeting  periodically  will  stimulate  them  to 
Increased  effort  and  to  unity  of  action  where 
such  unity  is  desired,  thus  creating  a  strong 
body  of  religious  leaders  In  each  community 
who  can  be  depended  upon  to  assist  In  any 
great  movement  for  the  betterment  of  rural 
life,  acting  either  as  individuals  or  associated 
in  the  Institute  or  other  rural  organizations. 

(c)  Sabbath-school  Teachers^  Meeting. 
At  present  the  work  of  the  teachers  In 
the  several  churches  In  a  community  is 
largely  disconnected  and  individual.  If 
the  teachers  in  these  churches  were  to  hold 
united  meetings  for  social  purposes  and  to 
discuss  the  problems  that  confront  them  In 
their  work  and  to  plan  for  new  or  community 
work  that  might  be  undertaken,  an  enthus- 
iastic and  efficient  body  of  workers  would  be 
distributed  through  the  country  districts,  uni- 
fied under  a  common  leadership  and  directed 
in  matters  for  the  general  good  In  a  way  that 


X30  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

would  be  most  powerful  for  the  improvement 
of  the  moral  and  social  life  of  the  district 
they  represent. 

Cofichision 

If  ever  consolidation  of  the  churches 
comes,  which  I  greatly  doubt,  It  will  not 
come  suddenly  or  by  force  but  by  the  slow 
process  of  Intimate  mingling  In  something  of 
the  manner  that  has  here  been  Indicated,  until 
acquaintance  has  been  formed  and  the  points 
of  agreement  have  been  discovered  and  the 
non-essential  character  of  the  points  of  dif- 
ference is  realized.  Quickest  and  best  re- 
sults may  be  achieved  by  some  orderly,  sys- 
tematic method  such  as  this,  of  universal  ap- 
plication and  beginning  with  those  most  fa- 
vorably disposed  and  capable.  The  assem- 
bling of  the  rural  pastors  for  conference  will 
naturally  be  followed  by  regular  stated  meet- 
ings of  the  leading  church  officials  and  of 
those  who  Instruct  the  young  of  the  commun- 
ity In  morals  and  religion  —  the  teachers  In 
the  Sabbath-schools.  Then  as  the  laity  or  in- 
dividual members  of  the  churches  Intermingle 
and  participate  In  the  farmers'  Institutes,  the 


THE  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  131 

agricultural  society,  and  the  rural  clubs,  prac- 
tical cooperation  will  be  secured  by  the  entire 
body  of  each  congregation  with  every  other 
congregation  in  the  work  of  community  build- 
ing, both  secular  and  religious.  Thus  the 
essentials  of  cooperation  are  had  and  virtual 
concert  of  effort  secured.  Should  we  not 
strive  for  this  practical  cooperation  first  and 
now,  leaving  matters  of  uniformity  of  name 
and  denominational  consolidation  to  come  in 
with  the  millennium  If  they  shall  be  deemed 
desirable  and  advantageous  then? 

The  church  may  justly  be  regarded  as  the 
center  or  heart  of  rural  life.  If  it  performs 
Its  functions  in  a  proper  and  healthful  way 
its  pulsations  will  beat  steadily  and  the 
spiritual  forces  driven  by  its  power  into  every 
part  of  the  community  will  nourish  and  up- 
build the  social  body  in  all  Its  parts.  In 
doing  this  It  need  not  abandon  its  position  as 
a  spiritual  teacher,  either  in  whole  or  in 
part,  for  some  side  line  promising  more  im- 
mediate and  directly  visible  results.  It  will 
accomplish  more  by  remaining  steadfastly  In 
its  place  year  in  and  year  out,  preaching, 
not  the  art  of  acquiring  temporal  wealth  and 


132  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

material  property,  but  how  men  may  obtain 
each  for  himself  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ.  By  rigidly  adhering  to  this  its  di- 
vine function,  it  will  aid  rural  life  most  cer- 
tainly and  effectively,  and  out  of  it  will  most 
speedily  come  the  social,  material  and  spiri- 
tual uplift  that  we  all  so  earnestly  desire. 
Hon,  John  Hamilton. 

UNION    ministers'    MEETINGS 

In  my  recent  correspondence,  I  have  re- 
ceived requests  from  three  different  counties 
to  speak  at  county  union  ministers'  meetings 
of  all  denominations;  and  the  request  in 
every  case  came  from  the  county  secretary 
who  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  ministers 
together.  We  are  much  encouraged  to  be- 
lieve that  the  movement  is  in  progress  and 
that  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
going  to  be  organized  increasingly  on  the 
county  basis,  as  a  county-wide  campaign  for 
righteousness. 

—  Professor  G.  Walter  Fiske. 


VII 

LEADERSHIP 

The  county  work  or  the  raral  work  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  has  to 
do  with  just  such  conditions  as  have  been 
described.  The  fundamental  principle  rec- 
ognized by  this  department  is  that  leader- 
ship is  the  solution  of  every  problem. 
Therefore  we  give  ourselves  untiringly  to 
the  discovery,  development  and  training  of 
leaders.  We  try  to  discover,  in  the  various 
communities  in  which  we  work,  the  tasks 
that  ought  to  be  done  and  we  recognize  the 
fact  that  everybody  in  the  community  has 
something  to  give  in  service.  Now  no  man 
will  work  well  along  all  lines.  Some  men 
will  perhaps  do  a  lot  of  things  fairly  well; 
but  a  man  in  these  times  must  be  a  specialist 
to  attain  great  success.  It  has  been  stated 
over  and  over  again  that  one  great  key  to 
success  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the 
Kingdom  of  God  is  bigger  than  any  one  de- 
nomination; and  the  County  Work  Depart- 
133 


134  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

ment  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion Is  not  so  much  concerned  In  the  pro- 
jection of  a  new  Institution  Into  the  rural  com- 
munity as  It  Is  that  the  fundamental  organ- 
izations of  country  life  such  as  the  home, 
the  church  and  the  school  shall  unite  as  far 
as  possible  and  do  their  work  properly. 
Therefore,  we  attempt  to  establish  a  com- 
mon platform  upon  which  all  these  agencies 
can  and  do  get  together.  The  best  thing 
about  this  country  work  Is  that  It  works,  It 
delivers  the  goods.  It  Is  finding  men  who 
see  the  vision  of  the  possibility  of  what  can 
be  done  with  their  own  lives  In  a  natural 
way.  If  they  are  willing  to  Interpret  these 
lives  unselfishly  and  throw  them  alongside 
the  lives  of  somebody  who  needs  help.  We 
sometimes  find  a  man  who  has  been  a  con- 
sistent church-goer  but  who  has  not  found 
adequate  expression  for  the  thing  he  can  do 
best  for  the  up-bullding  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  He  probably  sits  In  the  same  pew 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  year  In  and  year  out. 
He  probably  is  pointed  out  to  the  younger 
generation  as  a  man  of  unquestioned  in- 
tegrity; but  as  an  aggressive  and  dominant 


LEADERSHIP  135 

force  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  he  has  been  a  failure.  Then  through 
the  county  work  there  comes  to  him  some 
day  a  suggestion  that  he  can  use  some  special 
talent  which  God  has  given  him  in  a  specific 
way.  That  man  is  suddenly  aroused  from 
his  lethargy  and  linked  up  to  the  needs  of 
the  community,  thus  releasing  a  new  force 
for  the  Kingdom  and  the  community.  In 
many  towns  men  have  gathered  together 
and  eliminating  denominational  differences 
have  conducted  a  social  survey  for  that  com- 
munity; they  have  made  a  chart  of  com- 
munity needs,  just  as  plain  as  the  architect's 
blueprint.  And  when  they  have  shown  to  all 
the  men  in  town  what  needs  to  be  done  in  the 
erection  of  a  community  structure  —  one 
that  will  stand  the  efficiency  test  —  and  as- 
signed definite  tasks  to  definite  men,  the  men 
respond.  The  paper  hanger  does  not  at- 
tempt to  do  the  plumbing  nor  the  plumber  the 
painting,  but  many  a  man  who  up  to  this  time 
has  not  been  considered  as  a  real  aggressive 
force  finds  opportunity  for  the  expression  of 
real  community  interest.  Such  an  alignment 
would  put  in  his  right  place  the  country  edi- 


136  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

tor  already  referred  to  who  was  doing  more 
for  his  community  than  some  ministers. 
A  Task  for  every  Man. 

He  was  the  station  agent  on  one  of  the 
western  roads  —  a  good  man,  they  said, 
with  a  sort  of  negative  goodness.  His  atti- 
tude was  right  on  moral  questions  and  he  at- 
tended church  services  regularly.  No  one 
could  charge  him  with  doing  anything  wrong 
and,  as  In  the  case  of  so  many  other  good 
men,  no  one  was  conscious  of  his  ever  do- 
ing anything  aggressively  right.  He  was 
an  average  church  member,  but  in  many  re- 
spects was  like  the  man  of  whom  his  boy 
said  when  asked  if  his  father  was  a  Christian, 
"  Yes,  but  I  guess  he  Isn't  working  very 
hard  at  It." 

At  various  times  he  had  tried  to  teach  a 
Sunday-school  class  of  boys  but  had  met  with 
indifferent  success  —  he  had  been  unable  to 
establish  a  point  of  contact.  Other  forms 
of  Christian  service  he  tried  and  succeeded 
only  fairly  well.  There  was  nothing  in  the 
regular  activities  of  the  church  that  he  could 
do  well  for,  as  he  said  —  he  didn't  know 
how. 


LEADERSHIP  137 

One  day  the  county  secretary  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  said  to  him, 
"  There  is  a  distinct  task  in  this  town  for 
every  man  and  a  man  for  every  task  and  the 
business  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation is  to  tie  the  task  to  the  man  and  the 
man  to  the  task.  In  other  words,  Bill,  there 
is  some  one  thing  that  you  can  do  for  this 
community  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  better 
than  any  other  man  in  town. 

"What  is  it?"  said  Bill. 

"  You  can  gather  about  you  a  bunch  of  boys 
one  night  a  week  and  teach  them  applied  elec- 
tricity. You  are  a  telegraph  operator  and 
you  can  take  the  instruments  apart,  put  them 
together,  put  up  the  wires,  set  up  the  bat- 
teries and  teach  these  boys  how  to  send  and 
receive  messages." 

*'  Would  that  be  Christian  service?  "  said 
Bill. 

"  It  certainly  would,"  said  the  secretary, 
"  if  you  would  undertake  it  in  the  spirit  of 
Christ  and  promise  to  stay  by  the  job  in  spite 
of  difficulties." 

Bill  thought  It  over  carefully  and  agreed 
to  undertake  It.     Said  he,  ''  The  secretary  Is 


138  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

right;  I  can  do  this  one  thing  better  than 
any  other  man  in  town  and  perhaps  this  is 
the  way  for  me  to  get  into  the  lives  of  some 
boys  who  are  not  very  much  interested  in 
Sunday-school  but  who  need  the  leadership 
of  a  Christian  man,  nevertheless." 

No  man  can  accept  leadership  of  this  char- 
acter lightly,  and  Bill  prayed  that  his  con- 
tact with  these  boys  might  do  more  for  them 
than  teach  them  applied  electricity. 

He  had  his  troubles.  The  night  of  the 
first  meeting  eighteen  boys  were  present  but 
after  the  newness  began  to  wear  off  the  at- 
tendance dwindled  and  some  nights  there 
would  be  only  a  few.  One  night  no  one  came 
but  this  leader  was  not  discouraged,  for  had 
he  not  accepted  this  leadership  as  a  calling 
from  God  and  was  he  not  the  only  man  in 
town  who  could  do  this  service?  He  discov- 
ered that  leadership  of  this  kind  involved  real 
sacrifice  and  some  of  his  social  and  fraternal 
relations  had  to  be  given  up.  More  than 
once  he  was  tempted  to  quit,  but  he  remem- 
bered the  basis  on  which  he  had  undertaken 
this  work  and  stuck  to  his  post. 

Presently  the  boys  began  to  ask  themselves 


LEADERSHIP  139 

and  each  other  why  their  leader  did  so  much 
for  them  and  why  he  turned  his  back  on  so- 
cial engagements  that  they  knew  had  been 
dear  to  him  in  order  to  be  with  them.  One 
day  one  of  them  asked  him  and  when  Bill 
opened  up  his  big  heart  and  told  him  the 
real  reason  —  that  he  loved  them,  with  a 
strong,  manly  love,  this  boy  told  the  other 
boys  and  one  by  one  these  boys  said,  "  I 
want  to  be  the  kind  of  a  man  that  Bill  is." 
Several  have  taken  a  stand  for  the  Christian 
life  and  joined  the  church  and  all  of  them 
believe  in  Bill  and  Bill's  religion. 

By  the  subtle  process  known  as  character 
contagion.  Bill  has  transformed  the  lives  of 
these  boys  and  the  impact  of  his  consecrated 
personality  upon  the  telegraph  class  has  ac- 
complished three  things :  First,  it  has  changed 
the  ideals  of  these  boys  so  that  they  too  want 
to  help  the  other  fellow.  Second,  it  has 
raised  the  rural  standard  of  the  town  so  that 
material  conditions  in  the  home,  church  and 
school  are  improved;  for  the  spirit  of  service 
is  contagious.  Third,  it  has  given  the  man 
who  was  willing  to  pay  the  price  a  vision  of 
Christian  service  that  he  never  dreamed  was 


140  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

possible.  "  I  am  getting  out  of  It  vastly 
more  than  I've  put  Into  It,"  Is  his  testimony. 
He  has  been  changed  from  an  ordinary  church 
member  to  a  dominant  factor  In  the  extension 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  any  man  can 
have  this  same  experience  If  he  will  find  his 
job  and  stick  to  it. 

—  Albert  E.  Roberts. 

REACHING  THE  BOYS 
I  am  particularly  Interested  In  one  method 
of  attacking  this  country  problem  which  Is 
often  omitted  from  discussions  because  of 
the  modesty  of  the  men  who  are  doing  the 
work.  I  served  for  a  short  time  as  country 
pastor  In  one  of  the  counties  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  for  a  much  longer  time  I  have  been 
teaching  the  Bible  to  boys,  a  large  proportion 
of  whom  come  from  these  country  districts. 
For  the  last  three  years,  I  have  served  on 
our  County  Committee  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations.  In  that  movement  I 
believe  we  have  the  most  practical  attempt 
that  has  been  made  to  solve  the  country  pro- 
blem, so  far  as  It  concerns  the  boys  who  are 
going  to  make  our  men. 


LEADERSHIP  141 

The  great  problem  in  the  country  district  is 
to  find  men  who  will  take  the  initiative  in  de- 
veloping the  social  and  religious  life  of  the 
community  along  better  lines.  I  have  no 
word  of  criticism  of  the  country  pastor.  I 
have  worked  with  these  men,  I  know  their 
problems  and  sympathize  with  them;  but 
what  is  needed  in  the  country  is  more  laymen 
who  will  realize  their  responsibility  to  the 
young  men  and  boys  In  their  community,  and 
put  forth  an  honest  effort  to  fulfill  It.  By  be- 
ginning at  the  bottom  with  the  boys,  and 
training  them  to  a  sense  of  community  obliga- 
tion and  service,  not  merely  along  religious 
but  also  along  social  lines,  we  are  developing 
the  leaders  of  the  not  distant  future. 

When  boys  are  brought  together  in  ban- 
quets where  good  fellowship  may  become  hi- 
larious but  remains  always  clean  and  whole- 
some, they  learn  that  social  life  can  be  jo- 
vial without  being  low.  When  they  are  set 
at  work  helping  their  fellows  and  contribut- 
ing in  various  lines  to  the  betterment  of  the 
community,  they  are  being  trained  for  leader- 
ship both  In  town  affairs  and  in  the  life  of  the 
church.     This  is  a  union  movement,  which 


142  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

brings  the  different  denominations  together; 
it  is  a  practical  movement  because  it  constantly 
presents  something  definite  which  needs  to  be 
done;  it  Is  a  movement  full  of  promise  be- 
cause It  develops  along  the  right  lines  pow- 
ers which  will  either  make  or  mar  the  future 
of  our  country  life.  I  believe  that  all  pas- 
tors ought  to  study  this  movement,  for  it  cer- 
tainly presents  one  of  the  most  promising  con- 
tributions toward  the  solution  of  our  country 
problem. 

—  Professor  James  McConaughy. 

LEADERS  IN  SOCIAL  STUDY 

It  seems  to  me  that  In  some  of  our  Con- 
necticut rural  communities  It  might  be  a  per- 
fectly feasible  plan  to  institute  social  study 
classes.  They  should  be  formed  with  the 
object  of  studying  carefully  the  social  prob- 
lems of  the  rural  community,  with  a  view  to 
putting  Into  operation  some  definite  program 
of  work  which  would  directly  or  Indirectly 
profit  the  whole  of  that  community.  The 
greatest  need  of  these  classes  will  be  that  of 
competent  leadership.  Possibly  the  Associa- 
tion may  be  able  to  furnish  trained  men  In 


LEADERSHIP  143 

this  department  who  would  make  competent 
organizers  and  teachers  until  the  local  or- 
ganization is  able  to  conduct  its  study  alone. 
But  the  work  at  its  inauguration  needs  a  spe- 
cialist. 

The  need  of  social  study  classes  is  in  pro- 
portion to  the  need  of  community  improve- 
ment. Many  country  villages  are  divided 
up  into  ecclesiastical  fragments  which  are 
difficult  to  unite,  but  if  a  real  interest  is  taken 
In  social  regeneration  of  the  place,  the  whole 
community  becomes  partaker  of  the  benefit. 

Such  social  improvement  as  we  are  working 
toward  requires  for  its  success  the  united  Im- 
pulse and  inspiration  of  the  entire  Christian 
community,  and  If  it  should  be  fortunate 
enough  to  secure  this,  it  may  draw  the  people 
In  our  towns  closer  together  In  thought  and 
action,  and  raise  in  them  a  healthy  social  and 
moral  ambition. 

—  Rev.  A.  T.  Gesner. 


VIII 
A  GENERAL  REVIEW 

The  fact  that  the  chief  subject  of  discus- 
sion is,  "  The  Country  Church,"  indicates 
what  has  been  confirmed  by  the  various  con- 
tributions that  the  Church  is  recognized  as 
the  dominant  factor  in  the  problem  of  the 
rural  community.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
fact  that  the  discussion  has  been  brought 
about  under  the  auspices  of  a  specific  depart- 
ment of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion indicates  that  the  Church  for  some  reason 
has  not  adequately  fulfilled  this  function,  a 
fact  so  frankly  conceded  by  most  of  the 
writers.  It  should  be  stated,  however,  at  the 
outset,  that  while  some  justly  keen  criticisms 
of  the  Church's  methods  (or  lack  of  methods) 
in  this  field  have  been  presented,  yet  on  the 
whole  there  is  manifest  a  sincere  desire  to 
help  the  Church  to  master  its  problem  in  the 
rural  districts. 

Again  we  may  affirm  that  a  great  deal  has 
144 


A  GENERAL  REVIEW  145 

been  accomplished  In  the  way  of  finding  out 
what  the  problem  of  the  country  church  is. 
I  will  restate  the  points  briefly. 

1.  The  needs  of  the  rural  districts  are 
pretty  well  classified  as  economic,  social  and 
religious;  yet  these  should  be  more  clearly 
defined  by  workers  who  are  capable  of  making 
rural  community  surveys  and  securing  accur- 
ate scientific  information  so  that  the  country 
ministers  and  other  workers  will  know  what 
is  best  to  do  in  any  given  case.  The  preced- 
ing chapters  show  that  a  good  beginning  has 
been  made  In  this  direction. 

2.  The  problem  of  leadership  in  the  rural 
church  and  how  it  should  be  trained  has  been 
pretty  clearly  stated.  While  perhaps  seven- 
tenths  of  the  ministerial  students  in  our  theo- 
logical seminaries  are  from  the  rural  districts, 
yet  It  Is  a  fact  that  few  of  them  take  up  the 
country  pastorate  as  a  definite  life  work. 
Therefore  it  seem.s  absolutely  necessary  that 
the  Church,  as  a  whole,  radically  change  its 
policy  of  training  leadership  for  the  country 
problem.  Three  ideas  have  been  suggested, 
(i.)  The  agricultural  colleges,  in  some 
cases,  could  easily  and  with  profit  give  courses 


146  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

directly  relating  men  to  church  leadership  in 
the  country  parishes.  (2.)  The  theological 
seminaries  should  give  courses  in  rural  so- 
ciology and  practical  church  polity  in  these 
fields.  (3.)  The  strong  men  now  manning 
the  county  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  could  be  ordained  to  per- 
form the  functions  of  a  minister  in  certain 
cases,  or  be  promoted  to  the  leadership  of  the 
country  parish,  using  the  county  work  de- 
partment as  a  training  school  for  this  field. 

3.  Another  advance  made  by  this  discus- 
sion is  in  more  clearly  defining  the  factors  of 
community  building  in  the  rural  districts  and 
the  function  of  each  in  the  process.  Those 
factors  are:  the  colleges  of  agriculture,  the 
federated  church,  the  grange,  the  farmers'  in- 
stitutes, the  consolidated,  socialized  district 
school,  and  the  country  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association. 

While  these  community  factors,  at  times 
and  in  places,  show  group  rivalry  and  pro- 
duce social  friction,  yet  they  may  all,  un- 
der statesmanlike  leadership  by  the  Church, 
be  coordinated  into  a  movement  for  com- 
munity solidarity  that  will  master  many  of 


A  GENERAL  REVIEW  147 

the  difficulties,  economic  and  social,  which 
now  often  seem  to  the  isolated  worker  in- 
surmountable. 

4.  Through  the  entire  discussion  sounds 
a  note  of  optimism,  due  to  the  facts  of 
achievement  already  made  in  this  field. 
Among  the  participants  are  men  who  have 
made  country  parishes  distinguished  by  their 
splendid  leadership.  These  are  the  men  who 
see  with  broad  vision  the  national,  racial, 
and  as  one  has  put  it,  the  cosmical  phases  of 
the  rural  problem  the  Church  is  facing,  and 
there  is  reason  for  the  hope  that  the  Church 
will  soon  be  adequately  at  work  in  this  most 
difficult  yet  most  fruitful  field.  To  this  end 
it  seems  to  me  that  we  should  make  a  special 
appeal  for  strong  men  to  volunteer  for  coun- 
try work  as  we  do  for  any  other  difficult  field 
of  strategic  importance  In  building  up  the 
Empire  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  also  we  should 
appeal  to  the  Home  Mission  Boards  of  the 
various  denominations  of  the  Church  to  make 
provision  for  the  support  of  these  men  in  this 
difficult  field,  until  they  can  develop  adequate 
self-support     in     their     respective     country 


148  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

parishes,  which  should  be  real  social  centers 
of  service. 

—  Professor  Edwin  L.  Earp. 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES  TO  THE  COUNTRY 
CHURCH  CONFERENCE,  HELD  UNDER  THE 
AUSPICES  OF  THE  COUNTRY  WORK  DE- 
PARTMENT OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
COMMITTEE  OF  YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATIONS,  NEW  YORK,   1911. 

S.  A.  ACKLEY,  State  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations    of   Virginia. 

WILLIAM    B.   ADAMS. 

E.  L.  ALLEN,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations of  Westchester   County,  N.   Y. 

MISS  MARY  L.  ALLEN.  Secretary  of  the  National  Board  of 
the    Young   Women's   Christian    Association. 

DR.  WILLIAM  H.  ALLISON,  Dean  Colgate  Theological  Sem- 
inary. 

REV.  W.  L.  ANDERSON,  Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church   of  Amherst,   Mass. 

REV.  R.  H.  M.  AUGUSTINE,  Pastor  Hanover  (N.  J.)  Pres- 
byterian   Church. 

MRS.   R.  H.   M.  AUGUSTINE. 

W.  B.  BAILEY,  Assistant  Professor  Political  Economy  of 
Yale  University  and  Instructor  in  Sociology  of  Yale 
Divinitv    School. 

WILLIAM  H.  BAXLBY,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's 
Christian   Associations  of  Westchester   County,   N.   Y. 

WILLIAM   S.    BENNETT. 

REV.    WILLIAM    R.    BLACKE.    Village    Preacher. 

JOHN  R.  BOARDMAN.  New  York  representative  of  Goodwill 
Farm. 

REV.   W.  T.    BOULT.  Rural   Preacher. 

DR.  CHARLES  H.  BOYNTON,  Professor  of  Homiletics  and 
Pedagogy,    General    Theological    Seminary. 

H.  S.  BRAUCHER,  Playground  and  Recreation  Association  of 
America. 

FRANK  L.  BROWN,  Secretary  International  Sunday  School 
Association. 

W.  W.  BRUNDAGE,  County  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian    Associations   of   Dutchess    County,    N.    Y. 

DR.  K.  L.  BUTTERFIELD.  President  Massachusetts  Agricul- 
tural  College. 

DR.  ELMER  E.   BROWN,  Chancellor  New  York  University. 

JOHN  C.   CAMPBELL,   Russell   Sage  Foundation. 

MRS.   JOHN   C.   CAMPBELL. 

W.  J.  CAMPBELL,  State  County  Work  Secretary  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  Pennsylvania. 

REV.   EDWARD   M.   CHAPMAN,  Rural   Preacher. 

DANIEL  CHASE,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations    of    Eastern    Delaware    County,    N.    Y. 

REV.  W.   B.   CHASE,   Rural  Preacher. 


I50  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

REV.   A.    S.    CLAYTON,    Gardnertown.    N.    Y. 

REV.  W.  RUSSELL  COLLINS,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Liturgies 
and  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Theological  Seminary  of  the 
Reformed    Episcopal    Church,    Philadelphia. 

MRS.  J.  H.  CRANE. 

MISS  MABEL  CRATTY,  Secretary  National  Board  of  the 
Young    Women's    Christian    Association. 

REV.  F.  M.  CROUCH,  Field  Secretary  Joint  Commission  on 
Social    Service   of   the   Protestant   Episcopal   Church. 

REV.    GEORGE   STANLEY   DAVIS,   Village    Preacher. 

D.  C.  DREW,  State  County  Work  Secretary  of  the  Young 
Men's    Christian    Associations    of    Massachusetts. 

REV.  W.  A.  DUMONT,  Pastor  First  Reformed  Church  of 
West    Coxsackie,    N.    Y. 

MRS.    W.    A.    DUMONT. 

PROFESSOR  EDWIN  L.  EARP,  Ph.D.,  Director  Drew  Theo- 
logical   Seminary. 

LEWIS  F.  EATON,  President  Polytechnic  Institute,  Billings, 
Mont. 

MRS.  H.  H.  FARNUM. 

PROFESSOR  G.  WALTER  FISKE,  Junior  Dean,  Oberlin  Theo- 
logical    Seminary. 

A.  W.  FISMER,  Ph.'D.,  Professor  of  Practical  Theology  Ger- 
man   Theological    Seminary. 

REV.  FRED  E.  FOERTNER,  Pastor  Reformed  Church  of 
Pompton    Plains,    N.    J. 

REV.  G.  C.  FOLEY,  D.D.,  Professor  Homiletics  and  Pastoral 
Care,    Philadelphia    Divinity    School. 

FRED  B.  FREEMAN,  State  County  Work  Secretary  of  the 
Young   Men's   Christian   Association   of   New   Hampshire. 

C.  A.  GAMMONS,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association   of   Western   Delaware   County,   N.   Y. 

PROFESSOR  CURTIS  M.  GEER,  Ph.D.,  Professor  Hartford 
Theological    Seminary. 

REV.    A.    P.    GESNER,    Professor   Berkeley    Divinity    School. 

REV.    C.    O.    GILL.    Rural    Preacher. 

REV.  JAMES   P.   GILLESPIE,  Yorktown,  N.  Y. 

JOHN   M.    GLENN,   Russell   Sage   Foundation. 

GUY  D.  GOLD,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations  of   Rockland  County,  N.   Y. 

I.  L.  C.  GOODING. 

RALPH  C.  GOODWIN,  General  Secretary,  South  Bend,  (Ind.), 
Young   Men's   Christian   Association. 

DR.    W.    A.    GRANGER,    President    State    Baptist   Convention. 

JOHN  HAMILTON,  Chief  of  Division  of  Farmers'  Institutes 
United   States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

LEE    F.    HANMER,    Russell    Sage    Foundation. 

C.  L.  HARDING,  Chairman  Interstate  Committee  of  the  Young 
Men's    Christian    Associations    of   Maryland   and    Delaware. 

C.  C.  HATFIELD,  County  Work  Secretary  International  Com- 
mittee of   Young  Men's   Christian  Associations. 

HON.  WILLET  M.  HAYS,  Assistant  Secretary  United  States 
Department   of  Agriculture. 

FRED  M.  HILL,  State  County  Work  Secretary  of  the  Young 
Men's    Christian    Association    of    New    York. 

DR.  A.  S.  HOBART,  Professor  New  Testament  Interpreta- 
tions   (Exiglish)    Crozer    Theological    Seminary. 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES  151 

REV.  JOSEPH  HILLMAN  HOLLISTER,  Pastor  First  Presbyte- 
rian  Church   of   Mount  Vernon,   N.   Y. 

JOHN   R.   HOWARD,  Jr.   Secretary  Thomas  Thompson  Trust. 

PROFESSOR  W.  D.  HURD,  Director  Extension  Work  Massa- 
chusetts  Agricultural    College. 

JUSTUS    C.   HYDE,   Russell   Sage   Foundation. 

HENRY  ISRAEL,  County  Work  Secretary  International  Com- 
mittee of    Young   Men's   Christian   Associations. 

REV.  J.   H.  JENSEN,   Rural   Preacher. 

E.  TAYLOR  JUDD,    County    Secretary  Young  Men's   Christian 

Associations   of    Monmouth    County,    N.    J. 

WILLIAM   C.  LANGDON,  Writer  and  Student  of  Pageantry. 

REV.  C.  A.  McALPINE,  Secretary  of  State  Baptist  Convention. 

PROFESSOR  JAMES  McCONAUGHY,  Managing  Editor  Sun- 
day   School   World. 

REV.  M.  B.  McNUTT,  Pastor  Dupage  Presbyterian  Church, 
Plainfield,    111. 

REV.    JOHN    MacMURRAY,    Village    Preacher. 

A.  R.  MANN,  Secretary,  Registrar  and  Professor  of  Agricul- 
tural Editing,  New  York  State  College  of  Agriculture. 

F.  D.   MAPHIS. 

REV.  PAUL  MARTIN,  Registrar  and  Secretary,  Princeton 
Theological    Seminary. 

H.  D.  MAYDOLE,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations   of   Camden   County,   N.   J. 

C.  S.  MENGES. 

REV.  N.   C.  MILLIRON,  Pastor  of  Church  at  Littleton,  N.  J. 

HON.  ARTHUR  C.  MONAHAN,  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education. 

REV.  J.  N.  MORRIS,  Rural  Preacher. 

WILLIAM  G.  MOORE,  Chairman  Camden  County  (N.  J.), 
Committtee   of   the   Young   Men's   Christian  Association. 

J.  S.  MORAN,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations of  Addison  County,   Vt. 

W.  C.  NEWTON,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations  of   Oneida   County,    N.    Y. 

REV.    S.   R.    M.    OAKES,   Rural  Preacher. 

JOHN  H.  PATTERSON,  President  National  Cash  Register 
Company. 

C.  H.  PIPHER,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation of  Morris  County,  N.  J. 

FRANK  H.   POTTER,   "The  Outlook." 

GEORGE    T.    POWELL,    Agricultural    expert. 

REV.  A.  O.  PRITCHARD,  Westchester  Congregational  Church, 
Scarsdale,    N.    Y. 

REV.   E.    T.    F.    RANDOLPH,    Rural   Pastor. 

OTIS  B.  READ,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation   of    Burlington    County,    N.    J. 

GEORGE  A.  REEDER,  Secretary  International  Committee  of 
Young  Men's   Christian  Associations. 

ALBERT  E.  ROBERTS,  County  Work  Secretary  International 
Committee   of   Young   Men's   Christian   Associations. 

WILLIAM  W.  ROCKWELL,  Assistant  Professor  Union  Theo- 
logical   Seminary. 

E.   W.    ROSEVEAR. 

REV.   E.  J.   RULIFFSON,  Rural  Preacher. 

DR.  E.  B.  SANFORD,  Corresponding  Secretary  Federal  Coun- 
cil of  the   Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 


153  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

C.  F.  SAVAGE,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation   of    Lancaster    County,    Pa. 

REV.  J.  A.  SCHEUERLE.  Pastor  Second  Congregational 
Church.    Hartford,    Vt. 

MYRON  T.  SCUDDER,  Director  Froebel  Collegiate  and  Normal 
Institute,    N.    Y. 

F.  E.  SHAPLEIGH,  New  York  State  Agricultural  College,  Cor- 
nell  University. 

REV.  W.  B.  SHEDDAN,  Assistant  Librarian  Princeton  Theo- 
logical   Seminary. 

DR.  F.   C.   SITTERLY,  Professor  Drew  Theological  Seminary. 

CLAUDE  C.  SMITH,  Boys'  Secretary  New  Bedford,  Mass., 
Young   Men's  Christian  Association. 

REV.  FRANK  A.  SMITH,  Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,  Had- 
donfield,    N.    J. 

RAYMOND  SPARGO,  Boys'  Work  Leader,  Wharton,  N.  J. 

HARRY  HEDLEY  SMITH,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's 
Christian   Association   of   Gloucester   County,   N.   J. 

C.  W.  STETSON,  County  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation of  Western  Greene  County,  N.  Y. 

REV.  N.  W.  STROUP,  District  Superintendent,  The  Country 
Church  Commission,  Cleveland  District,  Eastern  Ohio 
Conference. 

CHARLES  F.   SWAN. 

H.    S.    SYLVESTER,    "The  Youths'   Companion." 

MISS  ANNA  B.  TAFT,  Assistant  Department  of  Church  and 
Country  Life  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions. 

REV,  CHARLES  TAYLOR,  Pastor  Congregational  Church, 
Westport,    Conn. 

REV.  ALEXANDER  THOMPSON,  Pastor  Presbyterian  Church, 
Little    Britain,    Pa. 

ROBERT  W.  VEACH,  Dean  of  Bible  Teachers  Training  School 
and   Professor  of   Religious    Education. 

PROFESSOR  ERNEST  D.  WAID.  Assistant  Director  of  Ex- 
tension Work  Department,  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
College. 

REV.    M.    WALSH,    Rural    Preacher. 

H.  B.  WATSON,  State  Secretary  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations   of    New    Hampshire. 

ROBERT  WEIDENSALL.  Secretary  Emeritus  International 
Committee  Young  Men's   Christian   Associations. 

REV.  G.  F.  WELLS,  Research  Secretary  Department  of  Chris- 
tian Sociology  Bureau  of  Field  Work,  Drew  Theological 
Seminary. 

JAMES  E.  WEST,  Chief  Scout  Executive,  Boy  Scouts  of 
America. 

J.  B.  WILBUR. 

FRED  B.  WILCOX. 

Z.  L.  WILCOX.  County  Secretary,  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations of  Orange   County,   N.   Y. 

DR.  WARREN  H.  WILSON,  Superintendent  Department  of 
Church  and  County  Life  Board  of  Home  Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church. 

REV.  A.  C.  WYCKOFF,   Spring  Valley,  N.  Y. 


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